Shaheer Ahmed
Hajj pilgrims need to be guided and facilitated. For this reason, the ministry of religious affairs has decided to send 800 volunteers to facilitate the hajj pilgrims. This is a good step as they will be responsible for the food, transportation, and emergency medical services the pilgrims can focus on their prayers rather than getting into the hustle. The volunteers are from different government organizations to assist the pilgrims at airports and holy cities.
The Saudi regulations allow one volunteer per 100 pilgrims. Aftab Akbar Durrani, secretary of religious affairs said, “Pakistan has a quota of over 81,000 Hajj pilgrims. Therefore, we are sending 810 volunteers to help them this year. We have selected these volunteers from all parts of Pakistan, “since there is no fixed quota for any province or region.”
Most of the volunteers are from the Hajj medical mission, which includes one doctor and two paramedics. They are delegated to 1000 pilgrims. Some of them are from the police, this will help deal with pressure situations in harsh weather. Government employees have knowledge of the different things and know the requirements of the Islamic rituals.
The volunteers have been selected for different duties and are sent to different places. They are to report to the Director-General of Hajj which is based in Jeddah. Their performances would be monitored and evaluated by the respective officials. They will be staying in the Kingdom for 45 days. He said, “This year we are sending 243 health professionals on Hajj medical mission. We have also selected some volunteers who have already been on the Hajj mission.”
The pilgrims have been praising the arrangements. One of them said, “From the Jeddah airport to our residence in Makkah, they guided and helped us. They even shifted our luggage to our rooms.”
Such steps should be appreciated as facilitating the pilgrims will help to focus on their prayers and then there are no management issues for the elder citizens who might get lost while sorting out the matter for themselves.
