Amidst its ongoing economic crisis, Pakistan has now surrendered the ‘unutilised’ Hajj quota allotted to it by the Saudi Arabia government.
As per reports, the number of applications received from Hajj pilgrims in Pakistan was way below the available seats. Therefore, it has returned 8000 unutilised government scheme seats.
The development was confirmed by Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs. The country was able to save $24 million (~676 crore PKR), which otherwise the government would have needed to pay to Saudi Arabia.
#VantageOnFirstpost: In a first, #Pakistan has surrendered its #Hajjquota. This comes as the country faces a massive #economiccrisis. How has Hajj become a luxury in Pakistan? @Palkisu explains pic.twitter.com/XWDelDkG42
— Firstpost (@firstpost) May 8, 2023
It has been a long-standing demand of the Pakistan government to increase the Hajj quota. Reportedly, Pakistan was provided with its full share of the quota for this time after several years.
However, it failed to receive enough applicants from Hajj pilgrims. This has been the first time that Pakistan had to surrender its Hajj quota, which shows the drastic impact of inflation in the country.
Interestingly, the Pakistani government initially thought of allocating the Hajj quota to private operators but later turned down the proposal for fear of them buying US dollars from the open market. It also revoked the balloting process for the Hajj pilgrims after anticipating a shortage of applications.
Deteriorating economic condition of Pakistan
Pakistan is experiencing its worst economic crisis amidst food shortages, flash floods, and poverty. As the government of Pakistan failed to end the economic crisis in Pakistan, over 7 million workers in its textile industry have been laid off.
Other than this, Pakistan, which was declared South Asia’s weakest economy by a report is also hit by a severe food crisis. The situation in several cities of Pakistan is so grave that flour is being rationed and guarded by armed guards. Prices of flour and wheat have witnessed a dramatic surge.
Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan are among the worst sufferers as tens of thousands spend hours daily to get the subsidized bags of flour that are already short in supply in the market.
Incidents of clashes and stampedes have been reported in markets in many areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan.
Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said that the government was praying, that Allah would bring prosperity back to Pakistan.
