ISLAMABAD, January 24 (Online): This year alone, 160 Pakistanis died of heart attacks, pneumonia, hepatitis, epilepsy or renal failure and road accident during the pilgrimage that is considered one of the five pillars of Islam.
Driven by faith, many ailing and elderly Pakistani Muslims ignore serious health problems to undertake the Haj pilgrimage and often pay a heavy price.
A list available with the religious affairs ministry showed 87 Pakistani Hajjis died of heart attack or heart failure this year.
Most of them were over 65 years and three were in their 90s. Thirteen more Pakistanis died in road accidents and 38 in a stampede, taking the toll to 160, the highest when compared to deaths of nationals from other countries.
The list showed that two people died of Hepatitis-C, two of pneumonia, three of renal failure, and one each of epilepsy and tuberculosis.
Now, officials and scholars are calling for a change in this mindset so that people can make a safe pilgrimage. Officials of the religious affairs ministry said every pilgrim is advised to carry medicines.
The ministry also provides medical facilities for Pakistanis in the Saudi cities of Makkah and Madinah where most of the rituals are performed.
Shahid Ali, a doctor who has been on duty in Saudi Arabia for two years during the Haj, said: "This is a major issue. People usually refuse to take medicines in Makkah and Madinah."
Describing the Haj as a "tough exercise", he said: "You have to walk a lot and for that you need to be healthy. But people do not care."
Relatives of some of those who died during the Haj said they had been taking medicines for heart ailments and some had even put off major surgeries.
"My grandfather was a heart patient for many years. While going on the Haj he refused to carry his medicines with him," Asad, the grandson of Bakhtullah, 83, who died of a heart attack in Madinah said.
Asad said his grandfather had told the family he was going to the holy land and did not need any medicines there. Mir Sher Ali, 53, who too died of a heart attack, was advised open heart surgery in Lahore some time ago.
"He refused to undergo an operation saying he may not need any surgery after visiting the holy places," said his daughter Fatima.
Besides the medical camps run by Pakistani doctors in Saudi Arabia, there are facilities operated by the Saudi authorities and philanthropists.
But officials said many pilgrims hardly visited these camps and mostly depended on self-medication.
Anis Ahmed, a professor at the Islamic International University here, said: "We need to remove such myths from society through education."
But he added: "Emotions and will power do work at holy places. I have seen very old and even ill people performing Haj as if they were young."
Ahmed opposed the setting of an age limit for Hajis and said medical teams should be well equipped and people should have ready access to emergency treatment facilities.
Though people going for the pilgrimage are required to submit medical certificates along with their Haj applications, religious affairs ministry officials admitted there were lacunae in the system.
"I regret to say that many people get clearance by the ministry by filing fake certificates," said an official.
According to Saudi authorities, the total number of deaths during this year’s Haj was 916, including 342 who died in the Mina stampede and 73 in a building collapse in Makkah.
The eldest Pakistani who died during the Haj was Saee Bahawal, 91, while the youngest to die in the holy land was 28-year-old Abdul Qadir.
Of the Pakistani Haj applicants this year, some 90 percent of the aged people (60 years and above) were from rural areas while most of the younger people (less than 35) were from urban areas.
The eldest person who performed the Haj this year was a 97-year-old while the youngest was a seven-month-old infant who went with his parents.
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