ISLAMABAD - Haj expenditures are likely to increase this year due to inflation, well-placed sources told The Nation on Friday.
The Haj policy draft would be presented in the next meeting of the federal cabinet for approval. For the first time in history of Pakistan, all the intending pilgrims under the government scheme will fall only under one category, as the government has recently banned dividing the pilgrims into categories, it was learnt.
"There would be no different categories for intending pilgrims this year, as in past the intending pilgrims had been divided into Green, Blue and White categories," officials of Ministry of Religious Affairs said while requesting anonymity. According to officials, the ministry will start receiving Haj applications from the last week of March and adopt policy of first-come, first-served.
According to information collected by The Nation, upcoming Haj arrangements will include use of electronic monitoring system to alleviate pilgrims' problems. A senior official of the ministry also endorsed the information. He said Haj expenditures are likely to raise Rs 5,000 this year due to inflation. Haj fares have already been finalised and the new package for government Haj scheme would be Rs 300,000.
He said as many as 143,000 persons would perform Haj this year. Almost 56,000 people will perform Haj under the government scheme while 86,600 people will perform religious duty under the private scheme. He said the Haj group organisations would be awarded quota as per accord inked with them last year.
He said that all intending pilgrims would be provided admirable residential and transport facilities on strict instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Responding to a question, the official said the quota of parliamentarians would not be re-established, while the pilgrims must have machine-readable passports and computerised national identity cards.
The official said the ministry was expected to start receiving Haj applications from the last week of March. He said the 20 per cent cut in Haj pilgrims share imposed on the country last year by Saudi authorities would continue this year too, as expansion of Haram Sharif was still under way. Hajj applications will be available at selected banks free of cost, while the applicants will be required to submit their applications in same the branches along with Haj dues, he said. 
The banks may also receive applications in groups, with each group consists of up to 25 pilgrims, through their group leaders who would be responsible to lead and facilitate pilgrims of their groups as per instructions issued by the ministry.
He said that intending pilgrims would be declared successful on first-come, first-served basis. Someone who has performed Haj during the last five years will not be eligible to perform Haj this year, except if the applicant is a `Mehram' of a lady who has not performed Haj earlier and has no other 'Mehram.'