LAHORE: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi should immediately take up the matter of additional payment of 2,000 Riyals for performing Umrah second time and verifying biometric data of each pilgrim and try to convince Saudi authorities to revoke the conditions.

The demand was made by JI Punjab emir Maqsood Ahmad in a statement on Wednesday. He said both the issues were affecting hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis and creating hurdles for those intending to proceed for Umrah.

“Pakistan has become the only country where biometric verification (of pilgrims) was required,” he said, adding it was duty of the government to take the matter up with the Saudis.

Terming it a discriminatory and unjust decision by the Saudi government, he said the rush at the centres verifying biometric data of the intending pilgrims was a proof of the problems that the decision had created for them.

The JI chief also condemned the rape and murder of a minor girl in Lahore. He said such crimes only go to prove that the provincial set-up was collapsing despite the tall claims by the government.

He said such incidences not only add to social chaos but also put a question mark on the performance of the law enforcing agencies and political masters of the province. The more worrying was the fact that despite arrests, very few see their cases taken to logical end. The ulema, he said, also had a role to play in this regard; they should raise the level of abhorrence against such crimes against the innocent.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2017