With the Haj season scheduled to begin next month, the State Haj Committee is caught in a quandary. The absence of a chairman and a full-fledged executive officer has made matters worse.
The three-year term of the 16-member nominated body ended a month ago on August 13 and the government is yet to constitute a new body.
The chairman’s post is vacant since the last one year ever since Hafiz Peer Shabeer Ahmed was nominated to the Legislative Council. Even for the key post of the executive officer, there is no regular officer posted. P. Mahboob Khan, Assistant Commissioner, Minority Welfare, has been given additional charge only recently.
The Haj Committee has written to the State government for reconstitution of the body four months ago, but nothing has been done so far.
Flights
The Haj flights for State pilgrims are scheduled to commence from October 23. A total of 6,222 pilgrims have been selected through ‘qurah’. Officials have no clue how the Haj camp will be conducted this year as there is no one to monitor the large number of activities connected with it.
The Haj House has been converted into a mini-airport with all facilities for customs, immigration, foreign exchange provided under one roof. “We don’t know how all these arrangements would be done this time in the absence of a regular body,” remarked an official. There is a suggestion for setting up an ad hoc committee to oversee the arrangements for this year’s Haj. But there is no official word on it. Even the ‘Khadimul Hujjaj” (Haj volunteers), who accompany the pilgrims for their guidance, are yet to be finalised. As many as 91 candidates have cleared the test conducted recently and of them 21 are to be shortlisted.
Meanwhile, the Haj Committee has proposed to hold the embarkation meeting of different departments on September 30.
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