ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The designated branches of 10 scheduled banks have started receiving Hajj applications under the government scheme from Monday, and the process of receiving applications will continue till May 8.
The successful candidates will be selected through balloting which will be held on May 14.
A total of 143,368 Pakistanis would perform Hajj this year, half of whom will proceed to Hajj under the government scheme and the remaining through private scheme.
Under the new Hajj policy announced by the federal government on Friday, anyone who has performed Hajj during the last five years will not be eligible to perform pilgrimage this year except for those people who will be going as ‘Mehram’ or the ones performing ‘Hajj-e-Badal’.
The intending Hajj applicants must possess a machine readable passport having validity up to March 21, 2016.
The Hajj package would be Rs255,971 from Karachi, Quetta and Sukkur (South region) and Rs264,971 from Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Faisalabad and Sialkot (North region).
