03/10/2017
26-Sep-2017
LAHORE - All the Umrah pilgrims from Pakistan will be fingerprinted before proceeding for the holy journey from next month, sources in Ministry of Religious Affairs confided to The Nation on Monday.
The pilgrims would also be charged a fee for the process, the amount of which has not been decided so far.
The move has been seen by Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP) with dismay and its office bearers have given a wakeup call to their members against the decision. They said the decision will not only double the miseries of the pilgrims but also put the security of the country at stake.
A former senior office-bearer of the TAAP, who did not want to be named, said the Saudi Arabian government had also tried to impose such conditions on pilgrims couple of years ago but it was also opposed by the TAAP then.
He said the firm supposed to operate for fingerprint was Dubai based and one of its directors was an Indian national so Pakistan cannot share the data of its citizens with such firm. He said that after their protest the decision was suspended by the authorities but now after two years it was being implemented again.
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Islamabad has issued a letter addressed to Ministry of Religious Affairs Islamabad and Haj and Umrah Travel Agencies in this regard.
According to the letter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh has directed to activate the Biometric Registration for all visas, including those for Haj and Umrah. For this purpose “VFS/Tasheel” company has been assigned to work beside travel agencies of Haj and Umrah.
“We hope that you comply with the new directions and apply the biometric registration for Haj and Umrah visa applications. The Royal Embassy of Suadi Arabia would like to avail itself of this opportunity to renew to Etimad office assurance of its highest consideration,” it reads.
It is worth mentioning here that Etimad Pakistan will handle the processing of visa applications for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Every individual requiring a visa to enter KSA from Pakistan (whether for Haj, Umrah, business, work or any other purpose) will have to come to Etimad Visa Service Centers (VSC) in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta to provide biometrics data which is now a compulsory part of their visa application.
Currently there are six centres in Pakistan: two in Karachi and one each in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta. These centres will collectively process around 1.2million visa applications per year. But TAAP statistics shows that last year 1.5 millions pilgrims visited Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah while 1.85 lacs performed Haj.
TAAP is not intact currently since its last election in Lahore was challenged in Lahore High Court but even then some office-bearers are trying to mobilise the members to react over the issue. A former office-bearer said they would write to foreign office, embassies and ministries concerned to get their protest recorded against the decision.
This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 26-Sep-2017 here.
