The pre-Hajj operation to airlift 150,000 intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia would start from November 24 and complete on December 25, a Religious Affairs Ministry spokesman said. The flight schedule has been finalized to ferry the pilgrims to the Holy land, which would be announced in a couple of days. The Pakistan International Airlines would transport about 124,500 intending pilgrims to Jeddah and Medina, while Saudi Airline would airlift about 25,500 pilgrims for Hajj this year, the spokesman said. To facilitate the intending pilgrims further, 16,500 pilgrims would directly be flown to Medina out of which 15,000 would travel through PIA while 1,500 through Saudi Airline. All the return flights would be operated from Jeddah airport. The return flights would start from January 4, 2007 and would be completed on February 3 next year. The special Hajj flights would be operated from airports of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Sukkur and Faisalabad. The pilgrims from Sukkur would Jeddah via Karachi while Hajj flights from Multan and Faisalabad airports would depart to Jeddah via Lahore. About residential accommodation for the pilgrims in Makkah and Medina, the spokesman said, the ministry has arranged the accommodation for 75,000 intending pilgrims who would perform Hajj under the government scheme. We have hired buildings in Makkah and Medina for almost all the pilgrims who have opted for white and green residential categories under the government scheme, he added. As many as 63,592 intending pilgrims were selected to perform Hajj-2006 under government scheme through computerized balloting. A total of 7,158 applicants who failed to get selected for Hajj in 2005 and 2006 have also been selected, he added. As many as 3,500 intending pilgrims would be sent under the parliamentarians quota while upto 500 applicants were selected against labour quota and 150 applicants would perform Hajj against quota of Hajj Foundation. Another 100 would be airlifted for the annual pilgrimage under UAE sponsorship scheme. The spokesman asked the unsuccessful applicants to consult the concerned branches of banks for refund of their amount deposited as Hajj dues.
