MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the Hajj quota was increased by 20,000 after Prime Minister Imran Khan requested the Saudi crown prince to do so during his visit to Pakistan.

“Due to this decision of the Saudi government, this year 200,000 Pakistanis will perform Hajj, and the PTI government took revolutionary steps to facilitate them. On the special request of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan was included to the Road to Makkah Project and immigration facilities by Saudi officials provided at Islamabad airport. If this experiment is successful, the facility will be extended to Lahore, Karachi, Multan and other cities as well,” he claimed.

Addressing the concluding training session for Hajj pilgrims, the foreign minister alleged that previous rulers had established properties abroad by embezzling pilgrims’ money. “Previous governments used a religious duty like Hajj to mint money. But, after holding negotiations with the Saudi government, accommodation has been arranged for pilgrims and the balance amount returned to them for the first time,” he added.

He also said that Prime Minister Khan had made a special request for the release of Pakistani prisoners in Saudi Arabia to Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, which was accepted.

Mr Qureshi added that the government was aware of the issues the masses were facing, but the resources were much less compared to the problems that could not be resolved overnight.

Later, talking to the media here on Sunday, he said that the video screened by the PML-N at a recent press conference has been negated by the judge in question. After the statement of accountability court judge Arshad Malik, there was no credibility of that video, he said. “A forensic audit of the video will be conducted through which credibility of the video will be proved,” he added.

He further said that the PML-N’s claim of possessing more videos was mere supposition and he would not like to comment on it. Maryam Nawaz has not been stopped from conducting a public gathering in Mandi Bahauddin rather she was asked to change the venue because of security reasons, he claimed.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2019