JEDDAH, 18 November 2004 — Hundreds of Pakistani Umrah pilgrims have been stranded here for days and put to untold hardship for lack of seats on Pakistan International Airlines flights home.

Scores of desperate passengers have thronged the PIA’s city office and are forced to spend anxious hours to get a seat for their return journey. Yesterday the entire area where the PIA office is located, off Madinah Road, was full of angry passengers and their relatives, arguing with the airlines staff. The PIA building resembled a crowded train station.

While some passengers waited their turn patiently, others squatted on any available space. Some slept on the floor inside the office. Women and children camped outside the premises.

Similar scenes are being witnessed at PIA offices in Makkah and Madinah every day. The rush at PIA’s Makkah office resulted in a stampede on Tuesday. However, no one was injured.

Manzoorul Hassan, airport manager of the airline, blamed much of the problem on the pilgrims’ insistence of praying the night of the 27th of Ramadan in Makkah and spending the Eid holidays with their families at home in Pakistan. “This is not logistically possible.”

He said PIA was running six extra flights a day, aside from two regular flights, and hopefully the rush would be cleared in a week. The airline’s Western Region Manager Asim Babar and his staff members were working overtime to clear the rush.

Some PIA officials blamed travel agents in Pakistan for the chaos in the Kingdom.

Ali Haider, a PIA official said: “We are not to blame for this mess. Travel agents fool Umrah passengers by giving them unconfirmed tickets, in some cases putting the sticker of the reconfirmation of the return flights on the tickets. When we check on our computers, even the PNR does not exit. In such cases, we have to rebook the passenger and allot him or her a seat.”

Many of the passengers in the crowded office did have tickets with false stickers while many others had no confirmation.

But Ali shrugged off a question as to why PIA has failed to take action against the erring agents despite the recurrence of the problem. ‘I’m too small a person to answer this question,” he said.

Passengers had their own tales. Some complained that they were left at the mercy of the PIA staff. Amiruddin Ahmad, bound for Karachi, said: “Our return tickets were confirmed when we boarded the flight in Karachi. But when we came to this office for the reconfirmation of the tickets 72 hours before our departure, we got the shock of our lives when told that the confirmation has been canceled. Now we have no option but to wait and pray for a return flight.”

Another passenger said that he has no place to stay in Jeddah until he gets a confirmed seat on a flight. So he has camped in the premises of the PIA office with his old and ill mother, wife and other members of the family. Bashir Ahmad of Dera Ghazi Khan added: “I do not have any friends or relatives in Jeddah and now I am running out of money fast. So I have dumped my luggage on the pavement outside the office. While I am standing in the queue at the counter, other members of my family are waiting in the lobby outside with their fingers crossed.”

Most passengers praised Saudi Arabian Airlines for not issuing wait-listed tickets in Pakistan, avoiding the rush and inconvenience in Jeddah. Others alleged collusion of PIA officials with travel agents in Pakistan and called for remedial action.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Haj intervened to provide the stranded passengers with accommodation and food.

A ministry spokesman said stern action would be taken against travel agents who have failed to provide confirmed airline bookings to the passengers.