PM Orders 48-Hour Probe Into Rs4,500 Hajj and Umrah Vaccine Charges

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an inquiry into how Border Health Services Pakistan priced and awarded its contract for pilgrim vaccinations, after the cost to travellers rose to about Rs4,500 a person from roughly Rs1,250 under the earlier arrangement and seven pharmaceutical companies took the matter to court.

The Prime Minister's Office set up a five-member committee headed by the Cabinet Division secretary and gave it 48 hours to report findings and recommendations, Dawn reported. Its other members are the Intelligence Bureau's director-general, the chief executive of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, a representative of the Attorney General, and the managing director of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, who also serves as member-secretary.

What the committee has been told to check

The inquiry's terms cover the legal basis for the public-private partnership behind the contract, the bidding documents, evaluation criteria, timelines, grievance handling, publication requirements, the financial terms, vaccine prices and any revenue-sharing arrangement, according to Dawn's account of the Prime Minister's Office notification. It is also meant to identify who, if anyone, is responsible for irregularities. The committee can co-opt further members, and the Cabinet Division is providing its secretariat.

How the price moved from Rs1,250 to Rs4,500

Pilgrims previously paid around Rs1,250 per dose per person; the new arrangement runs to roughly Rs4,500 a pilgrim, covering meningococcal meningitis, influenza and polio-related requirements, Dawn reported. Of the three, polio vaccination is supplied free under Pakistan's Expanded Programme on Immunisation, and the meningococcal shot is a genuine Saudi entry requirement for pilgrims. Influenza is different: Saudi guidance lists it only as a health recommendation rather than a mandatory condition for travel, Geo News reported in an earlier examination of the charges. A Border Health Services official, Murtaza Shah, told Geo News the flu shot was mandatory for Saudi-bound pilgrims but could not identify the regulation requiring it when asked, saying instead that the vaccine protects travellers and reduces pressure on tertiary-care hospitals.

Pakistan's polio travel requirements are already a live issue for anyone leaving the country: the World Health Organization's restrictions on unvaccinated travellers from Pakistan remain in force separately from the Hajj and Umrah package now under investigation.

The case in the Islamabad High Court

Seven pharmaceutical and vaccine companies — Gesundheit Concerns, Amson Vaccines and Pharma, Immuno Well, Hoffmann Human Health Pakistan, Hospital Services and Sales, 3A Diagnostics and Immunonet Pharma — petitioned the Islamabad High Court over the contract Border Health Services Pakistan awarded to a private company, Dawn reported. The petitioners say bids were opened on July 2, 2026 under rules that should have required advertising on the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority's website and in at least two national newspapers, in English and Urdu, but that the tender ran in only one newspaper. They also object to the exercise being described as selecting a "private partner" when the bidding documents referred to open competitive bidding. The court has issued notices to the Ministry of National Health Services, the PPRA, the Public-Private Partnership Authority, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, and the private contractor.

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal and Border Health Services have maintained that all procurement rules were followed and said they would file a reply in court, Dawn reported, without disputing the price figures themselves.

What happens in the next 48 hours

The committee's short deadline means its report should land within days of the prime minister's order, ahead of any Islamabad High Court ruling on the underlying contract. Neither the price breakdown behind the Rs4,500 figure nor the identity of the contractor's revenue-sharing partner has been made public, and it remains unclear whether pilgrims already charged the higher rate will see any refund if the committee finds the pricing improper.

Build Better Pakistan's Health Desk is tracking the inquiry and the Islamabad High Court case, and will update this piece once the committee reports its findings.