First Hajj Flight under Government’s Road to Makkah project departed from Islamabad early morning today on Monday.
As per an official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, overall thirty-two thousand pilgrims will be flown to Saudi Arabia through 106 Hajj flights forty-two out of which will be operated from Islamabad under the Road to Makkah project.
Hajj pilgrims are also being updated about the flights through the website and SMS on their cell phone numbers.
The Ministry has urged all Hajj Pilgrims not to enter the premises of Riaz-ul-Jannah without prior permission of Saudi authorities as the entry to holy places had been previously banned without prior permission by the Saudi authorities.
It advised all pilgrims to follow the procedure according to the directives of Hajj Moawineen after arrival at their residence in Madina.
Road to Makkah Project:
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior launched the ‘Road to Makkah’ initiative for the year 2022 to facilitate Hajj pilgrims belonging to Pakistan and five other countries after much anticipation.
As per PTV World’s report, the project included Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, and Bangladesh this year however the project was initiated in 2019.
In an official statement, the Saudi ministry said that the initiative aimed to receive the pilgrims and complete their procedures from their countries with ease.
The state-run channel quoted the Saudi gazette which explained the following procedure followed by in the project:
- Starts with issuing the visa electronically and taking the vital characteristics
- Secondly passport procedures at the airport of the country of departure after the verification of the health requirements
- Further includes coding and sorting the luggage to send to their place of residency in the kingdom.
- Upon their arrival, the pilgrims will move directly to buses to take them to their places of residence in Makkah and Madina with designated paths while the service authorities deliver their luggage to their places of residence.
According to the Saudi Gazette, the ministry implements the initiative in cooperation with the ministries of foreign affairs, health, Hajj and Umrah, civil aviation, the Zakat, and tax and customs authorities.