A meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to revoke free Hajj facility for ministers, Khuddams and VIPs.
It was revealed before the PAC that various ministers and secretaries send more than 650 Khuddams and assistants for free Hajj every year.
Chairman PAC Noor Alam said in this regard how so many people could be sent. The committee members informed that ministers, secretaries and other officers send their pilgrims for free Hajj every year.
Chairman PAC said that a report should be given on how many people were sent by the ministers and secretaries for free Hajj.
Chairman Noor Alam Khan also said that he has promised that Hajj will be abolished at the expense of the government because such facilities were a burden on the people in the debt-ridden country. He said that the common man pays tax and they do Hajj on tax money.
Noor Alam also said that no such free Hajj will be allowed and in case the family of any minister, secretary or MNA goes for free Hajj then the money will be collected and then will be deposited in the treasury of the Government of Pakistan.
In the meeting, the Secretary of Religious Affairs told the PAC that the Nawab of Bahawalpur had purchased six properties in Saudi Arabia in 1906 in which pilgrims going from Bahawalpur were considered free of cost but now these properties were under the control of the Auqaf Department of Saudi Arabia.
The PAC has sought a report from the Foreign Office on the matter.
