KARACHI: The first Hajj flight of PIA carrying over 300 pilgrims under the government Hajj scheme departed for Saudi Arabia early Saturday morning.
PK-7001 First Hajj flight departs from Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport to Jeddah this morning. Officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Auqaf, airport staff and family members of pilgrims saw them off at the airport.
The national flag carrier in its Hajj operations will operate 200 flights to Jeddah and Madinah transporting over 55,000 pilgrims to fulfill the religious obligation.
According to the schedule of Hajj flights, announced by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, first Hajj flights from Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore and Sukkur would also depart today. The pre-Hajj flight operation will continue till August 15. Post-Hajj flight operation would begin from 28th of August.
A spokesman of the Ministry had said that the first Hajj flight from Multan would depart from 15th (tomorrow) and from Faisalabad on 17th of July.
This year, 179,210 Pakistanis would be able to perform Hajj.This includes 119,473 pilgrims under the government Hajj scheme, while 59,737 would perform through private travel operators.
