PITB automates Private Hajj Registration

Lahore: More than 67,000 applicants for private Hajj have been have been successfully registered by 726 active Hajj Group Organizers (HGOs) through an online registration system introduced by the Punjab IT Board (PITB).

It was stated by the Chairman PITB Dr. Umar Saif while addressing a meeting held at Arfa IT Tower on Tuesday. He told that the system was activated on June 17, 2015 and it will accept online applications up to July 17, 2015.

He said “Punjab Information Technology Board, upon the request of Federal Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), has completely modified the registration scenario. By introducing the new system, Hajj Group Organizers Management Information System (MIS), PITB has not only helped MoRA in managing the useful data and making it readily available online through the information management system but also saved a lot of time and fatigue at the part of MoRA and the HGOs.”

Unfolding the details, Dr. Saif said that previously, the registration process was extremely exhausting and time consuming and at times clients and HGOs ended up waiting in long queues to just get the registration form. But the things didn’t end here, after getting themselves registered, next they had to register the Hujjaj and make manual summaries of their registrations. These summaries again took a long time in verifications. Further, it was extremely difficult to manage and save all the collected data for future references.

“But the HGOs MIS is a two-step process wherein at the first step, HGOs fill in a form available online and register themselves with MoRA as Hajj facilitators. Secondly, they fill in another form where they not only mention their Hajj packages but also the total number of Hujjaj they have registered against each package. With the help of the data provided, PITB’s system generates an automated summary that illustrates the detail of each Haji along with his/her package,” Dr. Saif concluded