Other News
November 19, 2009 15:40 PM
Services For Performing Haj On Behalf Of Others Suspended
From Ahmad Kamil Tahir
MECCA, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Tabung Haji has temporarily suspended services for performing the haj on behalf of others in order to study the effects of the implementation of the new ruling by the Saudi authorities requiring all local residents and Saudi nationals to obtain a permit before performing the haj.
Head of the Malaysian haj delegation Mohd Salleh Abd Mubin said the suspension was necessary to enable Tabung Haji (TH) to determine the appropriate fee to be paid to individuals performing the service.
He said TH had been offering this service to Malaysian pilgrims who were given the trust by families of the dead to look for a local Mecca resident to perform the haj on behalf of the dead relative.
"Usually, TH would look for a local resident who are Malays who originated from south Thailand, Indonesia or even Malaysia itself to undertake the task because the fee is much cheaper which is about RM2,500 per person," he told the TH media team, here Thursday.
He said the fee was cheap because previously the local resident did not have to use the services of the 'muasasah' to perform the haj and they could also come to Arafah and Mina using their own vehicle and did not have to fork out much money for accommodation or food.
However, since the last haj season, the Saudi authorities issued a new regulation requiring all local residents to obtain a permit to perform the haj and to use the services of the local 'muasasah' and could no longer perform the haj as they liked.
As such, local residents too had to incur much expenses to perform the haj and like in the haj season last year, local residents were not willing to undertake the task at the old rate.
-- BERNAMA
We provide
(subscription-based)
news coverage in our Newswire service.
