In big news for those hoping to avail the benefit of the government quota to go on Hajj this year, the government has announced that everyone who applied to the government scheme will benefit.

“The finance ministry is planning to not conduct any balloting and the number of Hajj applicants should get the opportunity to perform Hajj. Obviously, additional resources for foreign exchange will be needed for this complement arrangement,” he told reporters. He was accompanied by the religious minister.

“We have decided that under the guidance of PM Shehbaz and with the assistance of the State Bank of Pakistan we will hopefully provide these resources so that all the applicants are given permission and no balloting is held this year.”

He urged the intended pilgrims to offer special prayers for Pakistan that “the country may come out of the crisis”.

The government has received 72, 869 applications against 43,308 slots, but all of these people will now be able to perform Hajj on the scheme.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the reason for the announcement was orders from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the wishes of the religious affairs ministry.

However, the reasons for the decision are mainly fiscal. The government had hoped to raise dollars for the scheme but less-than-expected applications were received from overseas Pakistanis. Due to this, the religious affairs ministry will require an additional $33 million.

Before deciding to send all applicants on Hajj, the government had considered the idea of sending back some of the quotas to Saudi Arabia’s authorities.