ISLAMABAD: With an evenly split quota for government and private schemes, the new Haj policy, approved by the federal cabinet on Tuesday, allows 179,210 Pakistani nationals to go on pilgrimage next year but puts a restriction on taking children aged below 12 with them.

Under Haj Policy 2025, a new portfolio of Nazim (administrator) has been introduced to facilitate the pilgrims. One Nazim will be appointed for each 100 pilgrims, who would be selected from among the welfare staff, as 1,000 seats would be allocated for hardship cases and 300 for labourers and low-income employees registered under the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution or Workers Welfare Fund.

The cabinet meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was told that selection under the government scheme would be made through a computerised balloting. The cabinet called for giving preference to those intended pilgrims who could not succeed in the last year’s balloting.

Under the policy, Road-to-Makkah facility will be available for pilgrims at Islamabad and Karachi airports, while a special Haj Management App has been developed to facilitate the pilgrims and arrangements have been made for their training.

Cabinet okays new Haj policy; children under age of 12 won’t be allowed

The Haj group organisers would sign a service provider agreement with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which would be strictly monitored by the ministry.

The cabinet highlighted the need for taking all-out measures for the facilitation of the pilgrims.

Under the policy, the compensation for the heirs of the deceased has been increased from Rs1 million to Rs2 million while the inj­ured would be given Rs1 million.

Besides, the cabinet approved the appointment of Saeed Iqbal, Moazzam Ahmed, Madiha Khalid, Usman Haider and Muhammad Sajjad Farouqui as private members of Public-Private Partnership Authority’s board.

On the finance ministry’s recommendation, the cabinet gave post facto approval to the agreement on transfer of Foreign Commercial Financing Facility from London Interbank Offered Rate to Secured Overnight Financing Rate.

The meeting approved the Jammu and Kashmir Estate Property Budget for fiscal year 2024-25, besides endorsing an agreement between Directorate General of Ports and Shipping Karachi and Bahria Classification Society on the certification of the classification of ships.

Policy rate reduced

Earlier addressing the cabinet meeting, PM Shehbaz lauding the policy rate reduction by the State Bank of Pakistan to 15 per cent, said that the government’s economic stability measures were coming to fruition.

The prime minister, in his opening remarks, told the federal cabinet that a further two per cent reduction of the policy rate was a pleasing development for business, agriculture, exports, and commerce sectors.

He said SBP had gradually reduced the policy rate from 22pc to 25pc, enco­uraging people to invest their money in the economy to create jobs, enhance production, and exports. He said the policy rate reduction would decrease the debt burden by Rs1.3 trillion creating a great fiscal space for the country. He expressed the hope that the economy would strengthen if the indicators continued to move positively.

The prime minister told the cabinet members that in a follow-up of his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, a Pakistani delegation had left for the kingdom to discuss cooperation in mining and minerals, solar energy and skilled IT workforce which was required by both Saudia Arabia and Qatar. He asked the IT ministry to give a presentation to explain their strategy to produce IT workforce of international standard.

Calling for swift action on B2B MoUs with Saudi Arabia, the prime minister said the Azerbaijan government had also given a green signal for the signing of $2 billion MoUs to strengthen bilateral cooperation.

“These are good signals, but how we take advantage of these is up to us,” he added.

Power relief

The prime minister hinted at announcing a power relief package for the winter season and emphasised facilitating the businessmen to boost their morale.

“We are taking measures bit by bit for relief of the common man to create jobs and run the economy. This is a tough journey but only the nations which face the challenges are destined to succeed,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024