Pakistani lawmakers to explore ways to cut soaring Hajj costs
Pakistani lawmakers to explore ways to cut soaring Hajj costs /node/1618701/pakistan
Pakistani lawmakers to explore ways to cut soaring Hajj costs
Pakistani pilgrims prepare to board a Pakistan International Airlines' special Haj pilgrimage flight bound for Saudi Arabia at the Allama Iqbal International airport in Lahore on November 2, 2008. (AFP)
Pakistani lawmakers to explore ways to cut soaring Hajj costs
Hajj 2020 costs are expected to jump as high as 20 percent due to rupee devaluation and Saudi taxes
In poverty-stricken Pakistan, millions save up for a lifetime to perform the obligatory Muslim ritual
Updated 27 January 2020
KHURSHID AHMED
KARACHI: Pakistan’s legislators will next month explore ways to reduce Hajj costs for the country’s aspiring pilgrims, amid depreciating rupee values and higher taxes, officials said on Sunday.
On Thursday, officials of the Religious Affairs ministry told the senate’s standing committee on Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony that 179,000 Pakistanis were scheduled to perform the Hajj this year and those on government packages could be paying an extra Rs. 115,000 ($743) per person as compared to last year-- a 20 percent increment.
“A very important meeting of the standing committee (of National Assembly on Religious Affairs) will be held on February 3rd, in which it will be decided how much Hajj expenses should be. The meeting will consider all aspects of the expenses,” Muhammad Iqbal Khan, a member of the standing committee told Arab News on Sunday, and added that he was hoping for “good news.”
Pakistani officials say the rupee depreciation against the US dollar and other currencies in addition to the imposition of taxes by Saudi authorities, are the primary reasons behind soaring expenses falling on Pakistani pilgrims this year.
Last year, a Saudi riyal was equal to Rs. 39 when the Hajj policy was announced. This year, the riyal has appreciated to Rs. 41.21.
Khan said: “The participants of the meeting, including Noorul Haq Qadri, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and other government officials will consider options about how the government can reduce expenses and how tax issues can be discussed with the Saudi government.”
Pakistani Hajj operators also expect higher costs will reduce the number of people intending to perform the Hajj, compared to last year’s figures. Almost 200,000 Pakistanis performed the obligatory Muslim ritual last year.
“The government Hajj package is for those who have saved money throughout their life to perform Hajj, but the higher costs will make it difficult for poor Pakistanis,” Faisal Naeem, Chairman of Travel & Tourism, Hajj & Umrah committee of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) told Arab News.
“Most people save around Rs. 200,000 for the purpose of Hajj and borrow money to meet any additional expenses,” Dr. Abdul Jabbar Khan, senior economist, told Arab News.
“The higher costs will make Hajj unaffordable and this is due to government policies,” he said, adding that the depreciation of the rupee was not the responsibility of the people who had to bear the higher costs.
“It is the result of the government’s policies,” Khan said.
QUETTA: A wheel-jam strike paralyzed highways in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Monday as protests over the kidnapping of an 11-year-old schoolboy entered their 11th consecutive day in Quetta.
Muhammad Musawir Khan, a third-grade student, was kidnapped from a school van by unknown armed men while on his way to school on November 15.
The family has not received any ransom call from the kidnappers in all these days since his abduction. They have also categorically said they will not pay a single penny to the kidnappers.
“Today, all national highways connecting Balochistan with the rest of the country are closed against the kidnapping of my son,” Raz Muhammad, the boy’s father, told Arab News. “We will continue our protest until he safely returns home.”
Muhammad urged Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Asim Munir to consider Khan as their own child and play a role in his recovery.
Other family members echoed the sentiment, saying it was the state’s responsibility to ensure the boy’s recovery and improve the general environment of insecurity.
“We have been sitting here for the last 11 days to seek protection for all children like Muhammad Musawir Khan from these kidnappers,” Hajji Malang, the boy’s uncle, told Arab News. “Whoever kidnapped our child, we will not bargain with them for his release.”
Demonstrators are protesting over the kidnapping of an 11-year-old schoolboy in Quetta, Pakistan, on November 25, 2024. (AN photo)
The kidnapped boy belongs to a prominent tribal family involved in the gold trading business in Balochistan for decades. According to the family, he was abducted from Patel Bagh, a busy neighborhood in Quetta.
Political and religious parties, traders, transporters, lawyers and civil society members have all been visiting the protest camp to express solidarity with the family and demand the immediate and safe recovery of the boy.
Speaking to the media outside the provincial assembly, Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti said he thought of the kidnapped child like his own son.
“We are utilizing our full capacity and the government is making serious efforts to ensure his safe recovery,” he said.
Commissioner of Quetta Division Hamza Shafqaat shared the same update while speaking to Arab News.
“The government, along with all law enforcement agencies, is working diligently for the recovery of Muhammad Musawir Khan,” he said.
“We have shared our report on the progress in the recovery of the kidnapped boy to with the Balochistan High Court, chief minister and the provincial assembly, and they have all expressed satisfaction that the investigation is heading in the right direction,” he added.
However, Shafqaat declined to divulge details of the ongoing investigation.
Malik Muhammad Sadiq Kakar, senior member of Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, said that highways in Balochistan’s Quetta, Mastung, Khuzdar, Killa Abdullah, Chaman, Zhob, Killa Saifullah and Loralai districts were closed to protest the kidnapping of the child.
“We are sitting with the family of the kidnapped boy to express solidarity because we want peace in Balochistan,” he told Arab News.
Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been the site of a low-level insurgency by separatist militants for over two decades.
Other extremist factions, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Daesh’s Khorasan chapter, also have a presence in the region and frequently attack security forces and civilians.
Last week, Pakistan approved a “comprehensive military operation” in the province, targeting ethnic Baloch separatist groups attacking security forces and Chinese nationals working on the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
ISLAMABAD: The OIC Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH), in collaboration with Pakistan’s Gourmet Industries, has announced the COMSTECH-Gourmet Industrial Internship Program for its first batch in January 2025, state news agency APP reported on Monday.
Hosted by Gourmet Industries, the largest food processing complex in Pakistan, the program offers 10 internships lasting four weeks. Selected candidates will receive accommodation, meals, and return economy-class air ticket to participate in the program, which aims to promote innovation, research, and skill development across various industrial sectors, offering participants practical training and exposure to advanced technologies and industrial processes.
The program will focus on key areas in food industry operations including bakery, dairy, and beverages, plant utilities, recycling through innovative RPET methodologies, shrink-wrap production, sugar mill logistics, and media training in journalism and broadcasting. Participants will gain hands-on experience in supply chain management, production processes, and sustainability practices also.
“The internship is open to applicants from OIC member countries holding a BS/BSc or MS/MSc in relevant fields and under the age of 40,” the report said.
“The objective of the COMSTECH-Gourmet Industrial Internship Program is to foster innovation and research and development (R&D) across diverse industrial sectors, including food processing, engineering, plant operations, recycling, and so forth.”
The program will provide interns hands-on experience and exposure to cutting-edge technologies and methodologies, thereby enhancing their practical skills and theoretical knowledge.
“By engaging in real-world projects, interns will contribute to the advancement of industrial processes and the development of sustainable solutions, ultimately driving technological innovation and improving operational efficiencies in the fields of human nutrition and value addition,” APP added.
“This initiative underscores COMSTECH’s mission to empower youth in OIC nations and advance technological development for socio-economic progress.”
Applicants have to complete an application form and upload requested documents (CV, Research Proposal, etc.) at: (https://form.jotform.com/243101366016444) till Nov, 30. Applicants can contact [email protected] for further information.
ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of Pakistan’s National Economic Council has approved ten infrastructure projects costing Rs172.7 billion ($625.54), Radio Pakistan reported on Monday, with a majority of the schemes approved for the remote Balochistan province.
The ECNEC met in Islamabad on Monday with Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair.
“The projects pertain to the infrastructure sector for improving connectivity in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. Six of the approved projects are in Balochistan,” Radio Pakistan said.
“World Bank funded project for developing solid waste infrastructure for Karachi costing 29.2 billion rupees was also approved.”
Balochistan, which comprises 44 percent of Pakistan’s total land mass, is its most backward by almost all economic and social indicators.
Rich in land and mineral wealth, most parts of the Balochistan province often lack even the rudiments of modern life. Home to Reko Diq, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, and the site of major Chinese investment projects, the province lacks employment opportunities and basic facilities like Internet, health and education.
Balochistan also has the lowest density of roads among the four provinces of Pakistan. Poor connectivity and access continue to be a major problem, which particularly affect the poor, who live mostly in the rural areas.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, annual rainfall and temperature patterns have significantly increased and the lack of resilient infrastructure has escalated the impact of disasters on people and livelihoods. Flooding events since 2010 have substantially damaged the road network, hampering connectivity and escalating transportation costs.
Home to over 55 million people, Sindh is Pakistan’s second largest province and generates a third of national GDP. However, economic development is skewed in favor of the provincial capital Karachi, the country’s largest city and responsible for three-quarters of overall trade activity. Rural areas are poorly connected to the regional centers, and the road conditions of about half of the 2,830 km of provincial highways are substandard due to damage from heavy truck traffic and seasonal flooding.
PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: A march by thousands of supporters to demand the release of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan reached the edges of the Pakistani federal capital of Islamabad on Monday, with his wife Bushara Khan saying the demonstration would not be called off until the ex-premier was released from prison.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is leading a “long march” to the Pakistani capital from cities around the country to call for the release of political prisoners, including Khan, among other demands. The protesters plan to camp at D-Chowk, a high-security area in the capital’s Red Zone that houses key government buildings and is a popular site for protests, but the government has sealed all entry and exit points to the city with shipping containers and heavy contingents of police and other security forces have been stationed across Islamabad.
Khan has been in jail since August last year and faces a slew of charges he says are politically motivated.
“Until Khan does not return to us, we will not end this march,” Bushra said to supporters as the PTI edged closer to Islamabad. “I will stand there till my last breath, you people have to stand by me. I will keep standing even if nobody does because this does not concern just my husband but the country and its leader.”
The largest PTI protest caravan began its journey from Peshawar, led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and accompanied by Bushra, who was released on bail in October after nearly nine months in detention. KP is ruled by Khan’s party, which is in opposition in the national parliament, and Gandapur is a key PTI leader and a close aide of Khan’s.
The PTI march started on Sunday but could not reach Islamabad as shipping containers placed by the government on key points on major highways slowed the pace of the caravans.
“We wouldn’t let them storm the capital,” provincial Information Minister Uzma Bukhari told a news conference, adding that several police officials were injured in clashes and rioting at some places in the province.
Ahead of Khan’s protest, the government had imposed a two-month ban on public gatherings in the capital, citing security challenges and inconvenience to the public. Earlier this year, parliament also passed a new law to regulate public assembly in Islamabad, which said, among other rules, that any party or group wanting to hold a protest can only do so at a venue designated by the administration and during set timings.
Authorities have closed all schools in Islamabad and the adjacent garrison city of Rawalpindi, while the Internet and WhatsApp messaging services also slowed.
Police officers sit on motorbikes with shipping containers in the background, used to prevent an anti-government rally by supporters of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in Islamabad on November 24, 2024. (REUTERS)
ARRESTS AND CLASHES
On Monday afternoon, the caravan crossed barriers at Ghazi Barotha and the Hazara toll plaza before entering Punjab’s Attock district. Clashes between protesters and police were reported as the march reached the Kati Pahari area, with PTI workers struggling to clear the motorway under tear gas shelling.
Islamabad police confirmed over 400 arrests related to the protest in the past few days, saying the detainees were being held in different police stations. The PTI said over 3,500 of its leaders and supporters had been arrested in connection to the protests.
“So far, no major clashes have been reported today within Islamabad’s jurisdiction,” Jawad Taqi, the police spokesperson, told Arab News. “Police remain vigilant and prepared to uphold law and order in the capital.”
Another police official in the nearby city of Rawalpindi also reported a “calmer situation,” following minor clashes on Saturday near the peripheries of the federal capital.
“Several individuals have been arrested, but the exact number will be confirmed later,” Sajjad Ali, Punjab Police spokesperson in Rawalpindi, said. “Some police officials were injured yesterday, and further details will be shared soon.”
PTI leader Shaukat Yousafzai, who is part of the caravan, told Arab News over the phone the march would carry on until it reached D-Chowk.
“We will only return from D-Chowk when Imran Khan and other innocent party workers are released from Pakistani prisons,” he said.
The PTI’s march has coincided with a visit to Islamabad by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and a 68-member delegation to discuss investment deals. The government has accused the PTI of trying to sabotage the foreign visit in a bid to destabilize its economic recovery efforts.
Yousafzai rejected this criticism, saying his party had called the protest well before the Belarusian delegation’s arrival was announced.
“We have not blocked the roads,” he added. “The government has blocked the roads, creating a situation like this. The government should have held talks with the PTI instead of blocking the roads.”
KP government spokesperson Muhammad Ali Saif also said the PTI planned to hold a “protracted protest.”
“We are advancing according to our plan and are not in a hurry,” he said. “The government should prepare food supplies for the police for several days because we won’t stop until our demands are met.”
A report prepared by Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance estimated economic losses of Rs190 billion ($684 million) per day due to political protests.
Islamabad, Minsk sign several MoUs ahead of President Lukashenko’s visit to Pakistan today
Both sides sign agreements related to tractors, pharmaceuticals, tires and veterinary medicines
Pakistan has increasingly eyed foreign trade and investment to ensure economic stability
Updated 25 November 2024
Shahjahan Khurram
ISLAMABAD: Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan today, Monday, for a three-day visit to the country as Islamabad eyes foreign investment in its renewed efforts to ensure economic growth and stability.
Pakistan’s government has been seeking foreign trade, investment and bilateral cooperation agreements with old and new allies as it seeks to keep its $350 billion fragile economy afloat whilst grappling with a macroeconomic crisis.
A 68-member delegation from Belarus arrived in Pakistan’s capital on Sunday ahead of Lukashenko’s visit. The Belarusian delegation arrives in the capital as thousands of supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan march toward Islamabad, demanding his release from prison, independence of the judiciary and to register their protest against alleged rigging in the country’s February general election.
“President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko will undertake three-day visit to Pakistan from today,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said in a report.
Belarus’ Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov oversaw the signing of several agreements in Islamabad. Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar welcomed Ryzhenkov to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the two discussed bilateral and regional issues, and the agenda of Lukashenko’s visit.
During a meeting of the Pakistan Belarus Business Forum, the two sides signed MoUs related to tractors, pharmaceuticals, tires and veterinary medicines.
“The two sides emphasized the importance of enhanced cooperation in international and regional organizations to advance mutual interest and to jointly address global challenges,” Pakistan’s foreign office said.
Pakistan and Belarus, the world’s 74th-largest economy by GDP, celebrated thirty years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and maintains an embassy in Minsk.
The prime minister of Belarus was in Islamabad earlier this year where he met his counterpart as well as the chief of the Pakistan army, among other key leaders.
In September, Pakistan and Belarus discussed different options for a joint venture to establish a tractor plant in the country and reached a consensus on collaborating on a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine to protect cattle, as well as on the capacity building of agricultural engineers in machinery design.
They also agreed to enhance cooperation in the sectors of livestock and seeds, and work together on the mechanization of agriculture and on increasing market access for agricultural and livestock products. Belarus also wants to set up a veterinary medicine plant in Pakistan.
The First Pakistan-Belarus Joint Economic Commission (JEC) was held in 2015 in which the two countries agreed to initiate joint ventures in the textile, pharmaceutical and lighting solution industries and share technological expertise.
