Hajj preferences

Over the years, we have consistently heard and seen the federal and provincial governments apply fuzzy logic to concepts that they are not supposed to. Fuzzy logic may be useful but only so long as it is appropriately manipulating uncertain information. This week the religious affairs minister, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, could not quite make up his mind about whether his government was in favour of exclusive government-sponsored Hajj schemes or not. Apparently it is but the minister stopped well short of saying that loud and clear. Instead he clumsily pointed out that even the Saudi government preferred pilgrims to use private Hajj schemes.

Saudi preferences may be what they are, the federal ministry must learn to work out its own position and state its preferences independent of a foreign government — even if it is a friendly and influential Muslim ally. And more importantly this must be done clearly and without any ambiguity whatsoever. For years a debate has raged on the share of government and private Hajj operators in a particular season or year. The authorities, for the most part, are seen as being soft on private Hajj operators to the point of actually promoting them at the expense of the government’s subsidised Hajj schemes. In recent years, the tide of public opinion has turned in favour of Hajj schemes that are not only cheaper but also more convenient for would-be pilgrims.

The 2018 Hajj policy announced earlier allows official government operators to handle arrangements for 120,000 pilgrims while private operators will see to the needs of the remaining 60,000 pilgrims. The argument put forward by Senator Raja Zafarul Haq that the quota for private operators ought to be scrapped — shared as it is by other PML-N parliamentarians — is neither sound nor fair and has already been challenged in court by private Hajj operators. The quota may be cut but surely not done away with. Since fair competition is needed to encourage better services, the continued presence of private operators will help and not detract from the whole Hajj operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2018.

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