Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf on Sunday said that the government was actively trying to send as many pilgrims as it could for Haj, adding that 10,000 more Pakistanis have been permitted to perform the pilgrimage privately.

In January, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the annual Haj agreement, under which 179,210 Pakistani pilgrims were allowed to perform Haj, with around 90,000 people performing the pilgrimage under the government’s scheme.

However, a notification from the religious affairs ministry earlier this week said that only 23,620 pilgrims would be allowed to perform Haj privately, raising questions about the fate of the remaining 67,000 pilgrims up in the air.

Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan’ today, Yousaf said that the government was trying to ensure that as many Pakistani pilgrims could perform Haj this year.

“We are trying to enable as many of the 179,210 pilgrims to travel for Haj,” the minister emphasised. “Of that number, 50 per cent are going under the government scheme, and their arrangements are complete.

“With the prime minister’s permission, I went to Saudi Arabia and met their Haj minister. We discussed this issue, and he said, ‘We had agreed on all of this in a meeting in December and gave a timeline for the procedure.’ We requested that they extend the deadline so that our pilgrims are not left behind.”

Yousaf stated that after approaching Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and asking him to speak with his Saudi counterpart, an additional 10,000 Pakistanis were permitted to perform Haj privately.

When pressed on the issue, Yousaf said that this was not an issue unique to Pakistan.

“This has not happened only in Pakistan, it’s happening elsewhere, too,” he said. “In India, there are 52,000 pilgrims who want to go. People have been left behind and they are also trying to ensure they send as many pilgrims as they can for Haj.”

Asked if those pilgrims who cannot travel are going to be refunded, Yousaf said: “According to our Haj policy, there are agreements with tour operators under which the procedure [for booking Haj] has taken place.

“If money has entered the system under that procedure, then it is recorded and present,” Yousaf said, adding that it is their right to refund the pilgrims if they are unable to perform the pilgrimage. “Every institution, every operator is responsible. That money is part of the record,” he maintained.

Haj, one of the fundamental pillars of Islam, is performed each year by millions of Muslims worldwide. Pakistan receives one of the highest Haj quotas from Saudi Arabia.