A contempt of court petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court against the religious affairs secretary and two other officials for defying a court order to cancel the quotas to private Hajj tour operators and to make fresh allotments.
The petition was moved by Ashfaq Ahmed Mirza, chief executive of Travel Shop (Pvt) Limited, through his counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique. He said that he had approached the Ministry of Religious Affairs for fresh allotments right after the LHC’s June 6 ruling on quotas, but he was told that the quotas had been exhausted in allotments to the tour operators used by the ministry in previous years and the court orders could not be implemented.
He pointed out that names of the 736 operators allotted quotas under the previous policy were still on the ministry’s website, even though the LHC had cancelled their quotas.
He said most operators simply sold their quotas to other companies at a profit.
The petitioner said the ministry had made no attempt to determine which tour operators were genuine service-providers, so it was not observing a policy of merit, transparency and fair competition. He said no investigation was needed as the material on the ministry’s website was enough to establish contempt of court.
The petitioner asked the LHC to take action against Religious Affairs Secretary Shaukat Hayat Durrani, Hajj Director General Syed Abu Akif and Lahore Haji Camp Director Saeed Ahmad.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2011.
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