Pakistan(National Times)- The Ministry of Religious Affairs on Monday announced Hajj 2025 policy to unveil details of the pilgrimage cost, application submission dates, and the quota of Pakistani pilgrims under government and private schemes. The announcement of the Hajj policy for the next year’s pilgrimage was made by Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Chaudhry Salik Hussain in a press conference in Islamabad today following its approval from the federal cabinet last week. He said that the Hajj quota will be split evenly between government and private schemes, which is 79,600 each. He announced that the applications for the government Hajj scheme would be accepted from November 18 to December 3, whereas, balloting would be organised on December 6. Salik said 179,210 Pakistanis will perform the Hajj, while citizens under 12 years old will not be allowed to travel for the pilgrimage. Detailing the expected expenditures of a pilgrim to visit the holiest sites in Saudi Arabia, the minister announced that it would vary between Rs1,075,000 to Rs1,175,000. A pilgrim will have to submit Rs200,000 along with the Hajj application and deposit Rs400,000 after being selected via balloting, whereas, remaining payments will be paid by February 10, 2025. In case of cancellation, the refund of the first installment will be made after a deduction of Rs50,000, whereas, Rs200,000 will be deducted in case of failure to pay the third installment and no refunds will be made after February 10, 2025. Under the policy, the compensation for the heirs of the deceased has been increased from Rs1 million to Rs2 million, the minister said. Under the chair of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the federal cabinet members had greenlighted the Hajj Policy 2025 last week. As per the policy, 1,000 seats would be allocated for hardship cases and 300 for labourers and low-income employees registered under the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) or Workers Welfare Fund, it added. Road to Makkah facility would be available at Islamabad and Karachi international airports. The Hajj group organisers would sign a service provider agreement with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which would be strictly monitored. It was told that a new portfolio of Nazim (administrator) had been introduced to facilitate the pilgrims. One Nazim will be appointed for each group of 100 pilgrims, who would be selected from among the welfare staff. The cabinet members were told that a special Hajj Management App has been developed to facilitate the pilgrims and arrangements have been made for their training. The federal cabinet called for preference for the intended pilgrims who could not succeed during last year’s balloting. The meeting also stressed the need for taking all-out measures for the facilitation of the pilgrims.