SHC puts top religious affairs aide on notice

Private tour operators argue that they were denied legitimate right.

KARACHI:

A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justic Shahid Anwar Bajwa issued a notice to the federal secretary religious affairs and the deputy attorney-general after a petition was filed by several private travel and tour operators.

Anwar Mansoor Khan, the counsel for petitioners, questioned the two circulars issued by the ministry of religious affairs on April 19 and 20 in which 96 group tour operators were registered while other private tour operators were denied registration. The ministry also imposed a quota of 50 pilgrims to each of the registered tour operators.

Anwar argued on the grounds of 'discrimination', and submitted that the petitioner(s) had fulfilled all formalities and have legitimate right to be registered. The act of the respondent was in violation of section 18 and 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan, maintained the counsel in his initial arguments.

The quota for Hajj pilgrims from Pakistan has been increased by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and thus the ministry could have accommodated the petitioners. The counsel for the petitioner asked the court to direct the ministry to register them as Tour Group Operators, send their names to the ministry of Hajj, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia so that they could be allocated "Monazzim Card Numbers" and to declare the issued circulars as null and void.

After preliminary hearing, the bench ordered issuance of pre-admission notices to the respondent secretary as well as the deputy attorney-general for May 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2011.