ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday told a team of Saudi officials managing the Makkah Route initiative in Pakistan that his administration would provide them full support to ensure smooth implementation of the new immigration procedure for Hajj pilgrims.
The Makkah Route initiative allows aspiring pilgrims to fulfil all immigration requirements at the airport of origin. This saves them several hours upon reaching the kingdom since they can just enter the country, having already gone through immigration at home.
Pakistan has already started operating flights to transport about 14,000 Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia under the initiative from Islamabad where the country first tested the new immigration mechanism in 2019.
This year as well, a Saudi team is in Pakistan to facilitate pilgrims before their departure to the kingdom.
“The Prime Minister assured full cooperation and support to the Saudi Team for making the initiative a great success,” said an official statement issued by the PM Office after the meeting. “He also expressed hope that the ‘Road to Makkah’ initiative would be extended to other cities of Pakistan in future.”
Sharif received the Saudi project team led by the kingdom’s ambassador Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki earlier today. A senior official of the Saudi general directorate of passports, Mansour Shahad S. Alotaibi, was also present at the meeting.
The Makkah Route initiative also includes other Muslim countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
While thanking the Saudi leadership for implementing the initiative, the prime minister expressed satisfaction that thousands of Pakistani pilgrims were going to be facilitated under the program.
Pakistan has been allocated a quota of 81,132 pilgrims for this year’s Hajj, with 32,000 people using a government scheme and the rest traveling through private operators.
Saudi Arabia has allowed up to one million people to join the annual Hajj pilgrimage, inviting Muslims from other countries for the first time after two years of COVID-19 restrictions that temporarily limited the ritual to the residents of the kingdom.
Pilgrims this year must be under the age of 65 and fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.