Deadline missed, dreams shattered: who’s to blame for Haj chaos?

ISLAMABAD: How many Haj pilgrims will miss this year’s religious ritual? The Ministry of Religious Affairs and private tour operators have conflicting claims.

The ministry says it has received only 18,000 records of pilgrims from private operators. On the other hand, the operators claim they have already deposited the Haj fee for their full sanctioned quota and blame the ministry for delays in processing.

A top official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs told The News that, as of April 16, 2025, private tour operators uploaded complete records of only 18,000 Haj pilgrims. The official explained that private operators must enter full details of each pilgrim in the Haj Group Organisers Management Information System (HGOMIS). This portal is similar to the FBR portal, where every detail of the Haj applicant is entered.

“The HGOMIS portal has the record of only 18,000 applicants, which shows that private tour operators have either booked only this number of Haj pilgrims for 2025 or missed the deadline to upload the rest,” the official told The News. “This is not something new that they have booked 80,000 applicants but uploaded the record of only 18,000 on HGOMIS. In the past, if private tour operators booked 80,000 pilgrims, then all their records were uploaded on HGOMIS. So this should be a standard procedure for the private tour operators this year too,” he added.

The official said the Ministry of Religious Affairs is only responsible for confirmed Haj applicants. “The ministry had already clarified through various media, social media and advocacy campaigns that each applicant should deposit their Haj fee to the tour operators through a banking channel to maintain the record and keep the proof. The ministry is not responsible for any unconfirmed applicants of these private tour operators,” he said.

An official explained that two types of payments are required for Mina’s Makatib, which must be paid to the Saudi Haj Ministry. “One for Plot (Tawafa) and the other for services (Qadana). These payments were required for a five-day stay in Mina and to be deposited to the Saudi Haj Ministry. The remaining payments for hotel accommodation in Makkah and Madina were private payments. If they could not pay the required payment to the Saudi government in time, what one can say,” he commented.

In 2023, Saudi Haj Minister Dr Taufeeq Bin Fawzan Al-Rabiya visited Pakistan. During the visit, an agreement was signed. “According to the agreement, a cluster of 45 private tour operators would be given a total Haj quota of 90,000 each year,” an official said. “This means each private tour operator was allowed to take 2,000 pilgrims for Haj,” he added. Last year, the government was expected to implement the new agreement, but a one-year relaxation was requested and granted. “This year, however, private tour operators were required to follow the agreement and accept the quota of 2,000 pilgrims per operator,” an official said. There are 904 registered tour operators in Pakistan, and many wanted each operator to receive a separate Haj quota. “The ministry tried to convince them to form clusters of small and large companies to meet Saudi requirements,” he added. To ensure timely arrangements, the Ministry of Religious Affairs started 2025 Haj operations in November 2024. The president of the Private Tour Operators Association, in a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs, said they could not complete Haj applications on time because the Ministry of Religious Affairs approved the Haj Policy 2025 too late. He told the committee that funds for 67,000 pilgrims — about 680 million riyals — have already been sent to Saudi Arabia. However, due to limited time, no further arrangements could be made. He urged the prime minister to step in and request the Saudi authorities to allow these pilgrims to go for Haj through private operators this year. But the Secretary of Religious Affairs told the committee that this was not possible now. He said it seemed unlikely that the 67,000 pilgrims enrolled through private tour operators would be able to perform Haj this year.