Pakistan surrenders ‘unused’ Hajj quota to Saudi Arabia to keep away from losing $24 million

Amidst its ongoing monetary catastrophe, Pakistan has now surrendered the ‘unutilised’ Hajj quota allotted to it by the Saudi Arabia authorities.

As per experiences, the number of features acquired from Hajj pilgrims in Pakistan was method underneath the on the market seats. Therefore, it has returned 8000 unutilised authorities scheme seats.

The development was confirmed by Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs. The nation was able to save lots of $24 million (~676 crore PKR), which in every other case the federal authorities would have wished to pay to Saudi Arabia.

#VantageOnFirstpost: In a main, #Pakistan has surrendered its #Hajjquota. This comes as a result of the nation faces an unlimited #economiccrisis. How has Hajj become an expensive in Pakistan? @Palkisu explains pic.twitter.com/XWDelDkG42

— Firstpost (@firstpost) May 8, 2023

It has been a long-standing demand of the Pakistan authorities to increase the Hajj quota. Reportedly, Pakistan was provided with its full share of the quota for this time after numerous years.

However, it didn’t acquire ample candidates from Hajj pilgrims. This has been the first time that Pakistan wanted to surrender its Hajj quota, which reveals the drastic have an effect on of inflation throughout the nation.

Interestingly, the Pakistani authorities initially thought-about allocating the Hajj quota to personal operators nevertheless later turned down the proposal for fear of them looking for US {{dollars}} from the open market. It moreover revoked the balloting course of for the Hajj pilgrims after anticipating a shortage of features.

Deteriorating monetary scenario of Pakistan

Pakistan is experiencing its worst monetary catastrophe amidst meals shortages, flash floods, and poverty. As the federal authorities of Pakistan failed to complete the monetary catastrophe in Pakistan, over 7 million workers in its textile commerce have been laid off.

Other than this, Pakistan, which was declared South Asia’s weakest financial system by a report could be hit by a excessive meals catastrophe. The state of affairs in numerous 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 many many worst victims as tens of 1000’s spend hours on daily basis to get the backed baggage of flour which is perhaps already fast in present on the market.

Incidents of clashes and stampedes have been reported in markets in numerous areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan.

Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said that the federal authorities was praying, that Allah would convey prosperity once more to Pakistan.