Govt engaged in nasty business over Hajj: Hasina

In a statement yesterday, Hasina condemned the government's unscrupulous Hajj business, corruption and mismanagement that increased misery of the pilgrims.

She said the Saudi government gave clearance to 60,000 citizens of Bangladesh to perform Hajj this time.

Of those, 22,000 were scheduled to perform Hajj as ballottees under government management while the rest 38,000 as non-ballottees.

Though the concerned ministry issued notice for several times in this regard, only 8000 Hajj pilgrims applied to the government to perform Hajj under government management as most of the pilgrims do not have faith in the Hajj management of the government.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines fixed the airfare for the ballottee Hajj pilgrims at 950 US dollar per head. The private airlines also announced to carry the non-ballottee Hajj pilgrims at the same tariff.

Hasina, also Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, said the then state minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism, Mir Nasir, who is well known as a 'member of the Prime Minister's family', after a negotiation with the concerned airlines decided to increase the airfare taking 200 US dollar per passenger as illegal commission from the airlines in October.

She said Prime Minister Khaleda Zia took Mir Nasir to perform Umrah in the last week of October leaving the Hajj pilgrims in uncertainty after increasing the airfare suddenly.

The AL chief said after returning to Bangladesh, Mir Nasir played a mysterious role in fixing the airfare for the Hajj pilgrims. At one stage, the PM sacked him in a bid to protect him and conceal the fact.

Hasina also said the Prime Minister, who herself is in charge of the Civil Aviation and Tourism ministry, sought refuge to the leaders of Jamaat in exchange of commission to tackle the prevailing situation.

The airfare for the non-ballottee Hajj pilgrims was readjusted at 1050 US dollar per head while there is no logic in charging extra fare, Hasina added.