Pakistan says India’s claims on Kashmir ‘dangerously delusional,’ calls for meaningful dialogue

KARACHI: Pakistan’s religion ministry said this week it will kick off the second phase of its Hajj 2025 training program in southern Pakistan from Apr. 8 in which over 18,000 pilgrims will be trained to perform the annual Islamic pilgrimage. 

Pakistan conducted its first phase of training for Hajj pilgrims in January this year with sessions in Islamabad. Pilgrims intending to perform the pilgrimage were trained through audio-visual devices and other materials, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

“The Directorate of Hajj Karachi will organize the second Hajj Awareness Training Program for Hajj 2025 in Sindh’s six districts and under the jurisdiction of the Hajj Camp Karachi,” the religion ministry said in a statement on Saturday. 

“Training will be provided to 3,446 Hajj pilgrims from Apr. 8 to Apr. 13,” it added. 

It said that around 13,834 Hajj pilgrims will also be trained in the Hajj Camp Karachi from Apr. 13 to Apr. 21, while a separate training session will be organized on Apr. 22 at the headquarters of the Boy Scouts in Karachi for approximately 500 Hajj pilgrims belonging to the Shia sect.

“A total of 14,834 Hajj pilgrims will be provided guidance and training through the training programs so that they can be well acquainted with the rituals and travel arrangements of Hajj and perform their spiritual worship in a better manner,” it said. 

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Hajj 2025 agreement in January this year under which 179,210 pilgrims from Pakistan will perform the annual pilgrimage this year. The quota is divided equally between government and private schemes. 

Pakistan’s Hajj policy has allowed pilgrims to make payments in installments for the first time. Under this scheme, the first installment of Rs200,000 ($717) had to be submitted with the application, the second installment of Rs400,000 ($1,435) within 10 days of balloting and the remaining amount by Feb. 10 this year.

The Pakistani religious affairs ministry has also launched the Pak Hajj 2025 mobile application, available for both Android and iPhone users, to guide pilgrims.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis are paying more than £1.7 billion ($2.19 billion) in zakat annually, with the vast majority of recipients being women, according to a study released this week by researchers from the UK-based International Center for Tax and Development (ICTD) and Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Zakat is a form of obligatory almsgiving in Islam and one of its five central pillars. It requires Muslims who meet a certain wealth threshold to donate a fixed portion, usually 2.5 percent of their savings and assets annually, to those in need.
The findings of the study are based on a 2024 survey of 7,500 Sunni Pakistanis, shedding new light on the scale and social role of zakat, according to a post shared on the ICTD website.
“In a newly published factsheet, we estimate that self-identified Sunnis in Pakistan pay over 619 billion rupees (GBP 1.7 billion) in zakat annually,” the study’s authors wrote. “In 2024, the average zakat giver paid about 15,000 rupees (about GBP 43) with over 50 million Pakistanis contributing.”
“Our data suggests that every year, more money is distributed to people in need in Pakistan through zakat than through the largest state-led cash transfer program, the Benazir Income Support Programme,” they added.
Pakistan’s Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has a 2024/2025 budget of Rs598.7 billion ($2.16 billion), while zakat contributions, largely unregulated and directly disbursed by individuals, exceed that amount.
The federal excise duty and even official development aid received by Pakistan in recent years fall short of annual zakat totals, according to the study.
The research also reveals that Pakistan’s official zakat fund, established in the 1980s for compulsory collection and disbursed through state-appointed councils, plays a negligible role.
“Most Pakistanis prefer to bypass the state fund — unsurprising in a context where individuals have low trust in the government,” the authors said. “The national state fund collects only a fiftieth of what we estimate to be contributed annually, while survey respondents overwhelmingly noted that they prefer to manage their own zakat giving. In our survey, we find that less than 2 percent of zakat givers are going through the state fund.”
The study said most zakat is given directly to individuals, or via mosques, schools, and, to a lesser extent, NGOs, bypassing formal state channels.
More than half of the survey respondents reported giving zakat exclusively to female recipients, with a particular preference for widows, who were perceived as especially economically vulnerable.
The study highlights that private religious giving is filling critical welfare gaps in Pakistan, particularly for marginalized groups, in the absence of robust state social protection systems.