ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: The first special Haj flight carrying 433 intending pilgrims will leave for Jeddah from Islamabad airport on Saturday. National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain will see off the intending pilgrims, spokesman and joint secretary (Haj), ministry of religious affairs, Khawas Khan Niazi said on Monday.

He said the first Haj flights from Lahore and Karachi would also leave for Saudi Arabia on the same day, while from Peshawar the Haj flights will start from Friday.

The intending pilgrims from Quetta, Multan and Sukkur will reach Jeddah via Karachi while Haj flights from Faisalabad will be sent to Jeddah via Lahore.

Mr Niazi said a total of 462 special flights would airlift 150,000 intending pilgrims to the holy land by December 25.

The national flag carrier, PIA would transport about 124,500 intending pilgrims to Jeddah and Madina while Saudi Airline would airlift about 25,500 pilgrims this year.

To facilitate the intending pilgrims further, about 16,500 pilgrims would directly be flown to Madina out of whom 15,000 would travel through PIA while 1,500 through the Saudi Airline.

He said all the return flights would be operated from Jeddah airport from January 4 and it would be completed on February 3.—APP