However, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said TH was monitoring the situation and was in contact with the Saudi Arabian government on the status of the payments.

“So far, we have not received any feedback on it. This payment is under the Saudi government and we are only assisting,” he said.

Asyraf Wajdi said this at the Senate sitting here yesterday in response to a supplementary question from Senator Ramli Shariff, who wanted to know the status of the payments.

The tragedy on Sept 11 killed more than 100 pilgrims from all over the world, including seven from Malaysia.

Replying to a supplementary question from Senator Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah who asked if the government showed favouritism by giving certain people the chance to perform the haj each year, Asyraf Wajdi said there was never a question of favouritism as each person who was registered with TH, would be informed of their turn to go for the haj.

“There is no perception in our society that there is a quota for certain ‘VIPs’, but there are some who get a quota directly from the Saudi Arabian government or through its embassy.

“This has nothing to do with the quota given to TH as a representative of the government in managing our pilgrims,” he said.

As of June 10, TH recorded 2.17 million in haj registrations, making for a long waiting period of 87 years.

“This is an issue and problem faced by all countries and they all have a large number of people on the waiting list,” he said in reply to a question from Senator Dr Johari Mat who wanted to know the government’s efforts to resolve the problem of large numbers of applications from people to perform the haj.

– BERNAMA