ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has asked the successful applicants of Government Hajj Scheme to take back their deposited hajj dues by August 31.
Spokesman of the religious ministry said in a press release that the 98 percent successful applicants of government Hajj scheme had already been refunded their dues and the rest of two percent pilgrims could get their dues back from their respective banks till the end of the current month.
He said that the ministry had maintained a close liaison with the respective banks for the smooth refund to the pilgrims, who could not perform Hajj following the Saudi decision of excluding pilgrims from outside Saudi Arabia to contain coronavirus spread in the kingdom.
The branches of designated scheduled banks had started the cash return of the deposited Hajj dues from July 2, 2020. Each applicant of government scheme was informed individually about the repaying of their amount via mobile phone.
A pilgrim was required to visit his respective bank branch (where he had deposited the dues) along with original Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) and bank receipt of the deposited hajj dues for a cash return of the amount. While in case of getting amount through banker’s cheque, the group leader was required to visit the relevant bank’s branch along with the original documents of his group’s intending pilgrims.
The applicants were asked to contact the ministry’s Accounts Officer Refund on telephone no 051-9208465; 051-9205696; 051- 9216980-82 in case of any difficulty in the refunding process.
In case closure of the relevant branch, the amount was being refunded through the other nominated bank branch.
A total of 86,765 intending pilgrims were picked through general balloting from out of 149,295 applicants, aspiring to perform the sacred religious obligation under the government scheme.
A total of 179,210 Pakistanis were aspiring to perform Hajj this year including 107,526 under government scheme and 71,684 under the private scheme.
The government Hajj package (per person) was Rs463,445 for the north region without Qurbani and Rs486,270 for the same region with Qurbani (animal sacrificial). While Rs455,695 for South Region without Qurbani and Rs478,520 for the same region without Qurbani.
PAKISTAN TODAY
