ISLAMABAD: The pilgrims who performed Hajj during the last five years would not be eligible to apply for Hajj this year, the minister for religious affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf said in an interview.
The minister said that a new Hajj policy is being framed with focus on providing better facilities to the intending pilgrims.
Moreover, he said that a training programme for pilgrims would be arranged next month.
As many as 143,000 persons would perform Hajj this year. Almost 56,000 people will perform Hajj under the government scheme while 86,600 people will perform religious duty under the private scheme.
Earlier in March, it was learnt that for the first time in history of Pakistan, all the intending pilgrims under the government scheme will fall only under one category, as the government has recently banned dividing the pilgrims into categories.
“There would be no different categories for intending pilgrims this year, as in past the intending pilgrims had been divided into Green, Blue and White categories,” officials of the ministry of religious affairs said while requesting anonymity.
