PESHAWAR, April 20: The Ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs is making improvements in the Haj policy to provide better facilities to pilgrims in the next Haj scheduled in December.

“We have already transferred $6 million to the director-general Haj, Pakistan, in the Saudi Arabia to immediately hire best buildings to accommodate 70 per cent of Hajis,” said, Secretary of the ministry, Wakil Ahmad Khan. He was talking to Dawn on Thursday at the provincial directorate of Haj where he heard complaints about the tour operators.

He said that according to the rules, building-owners in Saudi Arabia were required to provide 3.5 meter square room to one person. Most of the buildings where Pakistani pilgrims stayed last years were located within 1000-1500 meters from Haram Sharif, but the Pakistanis preferred to stay in nearer places. While the people from Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran and other Muslim countries stayed in better buildings located at a distance of three to four kilometres from the Haram Sharif.

Most of the buildings where Pakistani stayed last year were demolished owing to their dilapidated conditions, he added.

“Problems there are natural, because more than four million people perform Haj simultaneously”, he said, adding that only those building would be hired that had been offering best services to the Pakistani pilgrims for the last three years.