All the designated branches of banks will remain open on Saturday and Sunday to receive Hajj applications.
\nThe State Bank of Pakistan has given these directions on the request of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.
\nThe banks will remain open on Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 2 pm to collect Hajj applications along with dues from intending pilgrims for this year’s Hajj.
\nThe religious affairs ministry on Friday announced that the 14 designated banks collecting Hajj applications across the country would remain open on the weekend \u2013 Saturday and Sunday (March 25 and 26).
\nMinistry spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt told\u00a0media that the decision had been taken in view of the paucity of time and due to a large number of people, who intended to submit their Hajj applications and dues in the banks during the off days.
\n\u201cIt will also help the overseas Pakistanis apply under the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme, which takes almost two to three business days to transfer funds from abroad in the foreign currency account of the religious affairs ministry,\u201d he said.
\nButt said that in response to a ministry\u2019s letter, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had advised the designated financial institutions to remain open from 9am to 2pm on this particular weekend for smooth sailing of Hajj operation.
\nInforming about Hajj application receipts, Butt said the ministry had received more than 26,000 applications by March 22.
\nUnder the sponsorship scheme, the number of applicants seeking foreign exchange from abroad had increased to more than 2,000, he added.
\nHe said that the overseas Pakistanis could also submit a health certificate issued from abroad in the bank or they could furnish a medical fitness certificate before their Hajj flight. He added those who had not yet received the coronavirus vaccine, could also submit the application.
\n\u201cHowever, they will have the full dose of the vaccine and submit the certificate to the banks before their departure to Saudi Arabia. Apart from NADRA [National Database and Registration Authority], a foreign vaccine certificate would also be acceptable,\u201d he maintained.
\nButt made it clear that it was not necessary for the person sending sponsorship to have a blood relation with the pilgrim. But, he added, it was essential to send the name, Computerised National Identity Card number, and contact number of the pilgrim along with the money, he added.
\nButt said that overseas applicants under the regular scheme should submit their applications in the bank through their nominated persons here in Pakistan, adding that in order to receive the possible savings in the package, they needed to open a bank account after arriving in Pakistan.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All the designated branches of banks will remain open on Saturday and Sunday to receive Hajj applications. The State Bank of Pakistan has given these…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5547,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}