Hajj policy 2011: Govt barred from finalising tour operators’ list

Petitioner says some Hajj group organisers blocked to favour others.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry has restrained the Ministry of Religious Affairs from finalising the list of Hajj Group Organisers (HGOs) till final decision on the petition challenging the Hajj Policy 2011 is made.

The CJ also issued notice to the ministry for a comprehensive report and parawise comments till May 16, the next date of hearing. The CJ issued the order on a petition filed by two travel agencies through their counsel.

Petitioners M/s Meerub Travel Tours (Pvt) Ltd, and M/s Golden Travel Services (Pvt) Ltd submitted that they had been tour operators for Hajj and Umra for more than a decade and had vast experience in the field. The petitioners submitted that the ministry, in 2006, introduced an enrolment scheme for HGOs.

A pre-requisite to enrollment was for the company to be a private or a public limited company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and also to have at least 3 years of experience as a Hajj and Umra tour organiser.

He said his clients fulfilled the conditions for enrolment but when they applied they were denied for reasons best known to the respondents.

He said the respondents have created a monopoly for HGOs of their choice and liking, based on ulterior motives.

He said the ministry had declared in the Hajj Policy 2011 that only HGOs given quota in previous years would be eligible for enrolment. There was, he added, no reference to performance, eligibility and merits. He said entry of new eligible HGOs had been blocked forever, in an open and blatant violation of law and the Constitution.

The petitioners said that the refusal of the respondents to register the name of his clients as HGOs and giving them quota for the Hajj Policy 2011 was illegal, un-constitutional, discriminatory, mala fide and against the principles of natural justice. The petitioners prayed that Hajj Policy 2011 be struck down as being discriminatory and illegal.

He also prayed for direction to the respondents to register his clients in the list of HGOs for Hajj Policy 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2011.