Hajj quotas: ‘Ministry ignoring court’s orders’

Petitioners say Ministry of Religious Affairs is still not considering new tour operators.

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Wednesday issued notice to the Ministry of Religious Affairs to reply within 15 days on a petition for the implementation of the court’s orders to the ministry to come up with a transparent new method for the allotment of Hajj quotas to tour operators.

Petitioner Carvan-i-Hujaj Travels and Tours (Pvt) Ltd, through Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, submitted that the ministry was ignoring the court’s directions of June 6 to give all eligible operators the chance to win quotas.

The petitioner said the ministry was not entertaining the new Hajj operators and instead continuing its previous practice of allotting quotas to the old operators. He said some of the old operators had not even met registration requirements. He said this amounted to contempt of court.

He asked the court to stay the processing of applications for Hajj quotas from operators till the ministry reorganises the registration of operators; and to direct the ministry to allot quotas to operators on merit and without bias.

Each year, the government selects private tour operators to accommodate Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.

This selection process came under extra scrutiny after last year’s Hajj, when many travellers complained of inadequate facilities. Former minister for religious affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi is the subject of a criminal inquiry into the scandal and is currently in jail.

On June 7, the LHC, deciding a petition challenging the government’s Hajj Policy 2011, told the ministry to make a new policy for the allotment of quotas to tour operators and revoke the old quotas.

A full bench headed by Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry ruled that a clause in the new policy – which limits selection of tour operators to those organisations which had provided services during Hajj in previous years   was illegal.

“We do not find any grounds which allow the government to limit the allocation of quotas for Hajj 2011 to only such HGOs [Hajj group organisers] which have rendered services in Hajj 2010 or in the immediately preceding years,” the bench observed.

The bench also held that the government was duty bound to solicit, receive, consider and decide upon all applications for allocation of quotas from qualified organisations. It said the government must ensure a competitive selection of operators.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2011.