ISLAMABAD, May 1: The government of Saudi Arabia has warned Pakistan that it would put a total ban on Umra pilgrimage from Pakistan if five per cent or more of its pilgrims disappeared in the kingdom as 60,000 Pakistanis stayed back last year. The number of pilgrims has marginally declined to 42,000 this year, which too is alarming and the new Saudi law is feared to be applied soon.

This was stated by Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq at a news conference here on Tuesday on his return from a visit to Saudi Arabia where he attended an annual meeting of Hajj ministers from various Muslim countries to discuss Hajj arrangements of the last year and the current year.

The minister, posed by questions about his own and his deputy minister’s fairness in Hajj arrangements, said: “I challenge anyone out of the 150,000 Hajjis who performed Hajj last year to come up with proof of corruption or irregularities.”

He said that the Saudi government had set new rules for Umra under which it could put a total ban on travelling for Umra if five per cent or more Umra pilgrims did not return from the holy lands, adding that the government would take effective measures to control this negative trend and to avoid a complete ban on Umra travel.

Responding to a question with regard to the Umra ban on pilgrims under 40, he said the law had been slapped to minimize chances of people staying back in Saudi Arabia.

He said that the Imam-e-Khaane Kaaba had asked the entire Muslim Ummah to confront the menace of terrorism as terrorists were giving Islam a bad name.