LAHORE, Feb 17: Arrangements by the religious affairs ministry were so poor this year that for the first time Haj pilgrims protested outside the Pakistan House in Makkah besides pelting stones at it.

This was stated by Jamaat-i-Islami deputy secretary-general Farid Piracha on Monday. Mr Piracha had returned on Saturday after performing Haj.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, Mr Piracha said when the Haj director was asked about it, he replied that he had taken charge of the office a few days ago and had nothing to do with the arrangements made for Hajis.

He said in Makkah residences for 20,000 Pakistani Hajis had been hired in Azizia area that was 12 kilometres away from Haram Sharif. In one of the 28 buildings, at least 4,500 people had been accommodated. The pilgrims had to queue up before two lifts. There was shortage of water and lighting facilities were inadequate.

He said the accommodations had been hired against 600 Riyals per head but the Pakistan government had charged 1,000 Riyals per Haji.

The A-class accommodation was 2 -kilometres away from the Haram and was situated on a hilltop. The pilgrims had to climb 37 steps of the hill to reach the building and then scale another 38 steps to reach their respective rooms, the JI official said.

As many as 2,150 Riyals per head had been charged for the A-class accommodation.

The situation in Madina was no different as residences hired there were at least two and a half kilometres away from the Masjid-i-Nabvi.

Mr Piracha alleged that 1,000 employees of various ministries, including the ministry for religious affairs, had been sent to serve Hajis in Saudi Arabia. These people only performed Haj at state expenses and did nothing to facilitate the Hajis.

This free Haj facility cost the government a sum of Rs150 million which was directly recovered from the genuine Hajis, Mr Piracha said.

Pointing out another act of mismanagement in the religious affairs ministry, Mr Piracha said the officials submitted 38,000 passports with the Saudi embassy for visas without affixing flight numbers on them.

The passports were processed without any priority as a result of which 6,000 people could not go to perform Haj because the time of their flights elapsed before their passports were handed over to them.

Similarly, the ministry could not properly inform the Hajis about the timing of their return flights due to which half of the seats of various flights had been remaining vacant. He alleged that ministry officials sold out Haj applications against Rs500 per form which was earlier available free of cost.

He also said that the Saudi government did not charge any fee for Haj visa but the Pakistan government billed Rs2,000 per visa to the intending Hajis.

He claimed that the officials received Haj applications up to Dec 31 with Rs5,000 late fee though the last date for submitting the same was Sept 30. This extra amount was minted by the commission mafia people in the ministry who had been occupying their posts for the last many years, he alleged.

The JI leader alleged that the ministry officials recovered Haj expenses from the intending Hajis many months ago and pocketed interest by depositing the sum so collected in banks.

He demanded the government take action against the mafia which, he said, had earned at least Rs150 million by hiring buildings with poor facilities.

There were no accommodation arrangements for the ‘late comers’ in the Haram Sharif.

He complained that the Saudi government also failed to make exemplary arrangements, specially traffic system, for Hajis this year. There was no arrangement to remove the Hajis who had no accommodation facility and had made their beds on various approaches hindering movement of people to Arafat.

The people reached late in the Arafat and thus could not perform this important rite of Haj, he said.

The Saudi government also had not properly publicized the increased limits of Mina, he said, demanding the (Saudi) government should offer free Haj facility to all those who could not make through to Arafat in time.

He told newsmen that the Hajis from across the globe had hatred against the US and they were pelting stones at the Satan naming it as (US president) Bush.