ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Dr Noor-ul-Haq Qadri on Tuesday performed the balloting for government Hajj Scheme in Islamabad.
The result of balloting has been uploaded on the official website of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and lucky applicants have also been informed via SMS.
While addressing the media after inaugurating the balloting, the minister said that a total of 216,623 aspirants including 123,700 males and 92,923 females submitted their applications for Hajj this year.
The religious minister said that the intending pilgrims who have been applying for Hajj for the last three years will be allowed to perform Hajj without balloting. Similarly, he added, that the pilgrims above 80 years of age will also be allowed Hajj without balloting.
Noor-ul-Haq Qadri said that said that 184,210 Pakistani pilgrims will perform Hajj 2019, adding that of them, 112,526 will perform Hajj under the government scheme and 71,684 under private scheme.
The minister said that most number of Hajj applications were received from Punjab as 108,006 applicants from the province applied for the pilgrimage. He said that from Sindh 49,343 applications, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 40,752 applications, from Balochistan 10,258 applications, from Kashmir 2,316 applications, from FATA 4,314 applications and from Gilgit Baltistan 2,422 applications were received.
Likewise, 2,000 applicants above 80 years of age submitted their Hajj applications.
