RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) conducted week-long training sessions for Hajj Group Organizers (HGOs) Management Information System (MIS) for Hajj 2018 across the country in collaboration with Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) and Hajj Organizers Association of Pakistan (HOAP).

The training sessions were conducted in Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad. Apart from Government Hajj scheme, Private Hajj Operators assigned a fixed quota of Hajj applications by Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) participated in the training administered by the officials of PITB and MoRA.

Earlier the registration process was extremely exhausting and time consuming in the past and ended up waiting in long queues to get the forms for their registration. They also had to register the Hujjaj and make manual summaries, which again took a long time in verifications. However, with the implementation of HGOs MIS automated processes in three phases, HGOs Registration System, Hujjaj Registration System and Logistics, the process has been made easier and smooth by curtailing the unnecessary delays.

Around 764 HGOs are registered with MoRA. At the time of their registration, details of the HGOs were entered in the system, including HGOs’ profiles, bank details, company and quota details, penalties imposed, etc. Every year, HGOs’ registration is opened for a specific period of time to make the changes before the commencement of operations. However, if any change occurs during the year, HGOs have to take prior approval of the MoRA.

The training included summary details of Hujjaj, their Hajj package and training schedules are entered into the Hujjaj Registration System. Once the draft prints of applications are verified, the final prints cannot be changed. Moreover, they also have five percent quota for substitution cases, which can now be viewed in the HGOs MIS.