1,715 Hajj applicants asked to get clearance from NADRA
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—Ministry of Religious Affairs has asked 1,715 Hajj applicants whom Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) were not cleared by National Database andRegistration Authority (NADRA) to get Authority’s clearance within seven days.
“In the absence of the clearance from NADRA, theseapplicants cannot be permitted to perform Hajj this year,” JointSecretary Hajj, Muhammad Sarwar said in a statement issued here on Thursday. He said all the application received under government scheme were sent to NADRA for verification of CNIC, out of which the Authority declined verification in respect of over 3,000 applicants.
However, with the Ministry’s efforts and NADRA cooperation, some of these cases were verified.
Finally, the NADRA has not verified the CNICs of 1,715 intending pilgrims, the list of which has been placed on thewebsite of the Ministry i.e. www.hajjinfo.org.
The Joint Secretary said the applicants are being sentletters individually to get themselves cleared from NADRA.
“In the absence of clearance from NADRA, these applicants cannot be permitted to perform Hajj 2007,” he added.
These applicants are, therefore advised, in their own interest to get NADRA clearance within seven days and transmit tothe Ministry, failing which their names would be deleted from the list of successful intending pilgrims, he said.
Muhammad Sarwar said the respective Hajj Directorates havebeen advised to assist, if any, for early response from NADRA.
He said as that a result of ballot for Hajj 2007, 79,500 applicants were declared successful under government schemesubject to verification of computerized national identity cards (CNICs) issued by NADRA.