Hajj 2025: Nearly 60,000 Pakistanis arrive in Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage

Cairo: Nearly 60,000 Pakistanis have arrived  in Saudi Arabia over the past days aboard more than 250 flights from the homeland to perform the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage due early next month, according to official figures.

The Pakistani Ministry of Religious Affairs said about 63 per cent of Pakistani pilgrims travelling under the government Hajj scheme have arrived in Saudi Arabia since the Hajj flight operations began on April 29.

The ministry's spokesman Muhammad Umar Butt said preparations are underway for tents and other facilities at the Mina valley and Arafat, key sites of the Hajj rituals.

This year, the Pakistan Hajj Mission will accommodate more than 88,380 pilgrims under the government scheme and about 27,000 others under a private scheme.

Hajj flights from Pakistan will continue until May 31, four days before the commencement of the Hajj rites expected to start on June 4.

Pakistan is among several countries covered by a Saudi programme offering pilgrimage-associated facilities.

Officially dubbed the “Mecca Route” Initiative, the scheme also benefits pilgrims from Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Bangladesh, Turkey and Cote d’Ivoire.

In 2018, the Saudi Interior Ministry relaunched the “Mecca Route” that gives pilgrims from several countries access to facilities. The initiative kicked off on a trial basis a year earlier.

The facilities include issuance of electronic visas at home, finalising passport procedures as well as tagging and sorting out luggage at the departure airports.

On arrival in Saudi Arabia, those pilgrims head directly to their residences in Mecca and Medina while their luggage are delivered right to their accommodation places.