Tuesday April 26, 2016
Kabul (BNA) The Ministry of Hajj and Endowment had announced to provide more facilities for the hajj pilgrims as it contracted with the state-ran air aviation enterprise Afghan Aryan Airline (AAA), under a resolution approved by the national procurement committee, an official said. Deputy Minister of Hajj and Endowment, Dayeul Haq told that the ministry had made effort to provide more facilities for the Makka pilgrimage than the last several years, as the Ariana Afghan Airline-the only state run company would shift thousands of Afghans to the Makka city, where they would also be provided with more facilities including three times food and full accommodations. He said this year some 24,000 Afghans would leave for the holy Makka for the hajj pilgrims as according to him, the holy haram is still under work, restricting quotas for the Islamic countries, resulting in reduction of the figure from some 30,000 to 24,000 pilgrims in Afghanistan. The process of the hajis transfer to the Makka city was transparent and they would be helped with thousands of professional mentors instructing how to perform the hajj’s formalities, said the deputy minister who assured the Afghan hajis for not being concerned about the process.
The figure would also include families of the martyrs and government staffs, said Dayeul Haq suggesting the reasons behind the plan to contract with the AAA, for being the only national air aviation company with 63 years of flight experience and better service offer for the Afghan hajis in the recent years. Meanwhile, a haji with last year’s visit to the Makka city told that he had good memories of good services provided by the Afghan Aryana Airline last year, and this year, he persuaded his brother to visit the Makka city and attend the pilgrimage, once the ministry of hajj and endowment had renewed contract with the company.
This is while, in the past, the Afghan pilgrims faced various problems, hoping the new contracts could do more with them to visit the holy city.
Shukria Kohistani