The Lahore High Court ruled that the Hajj Policy 2011 was unconstitutional because it deprived citizens of their right to freedom of choice of profession by requiring that the private Hajj tour operators have past experience of providing such services.
The court also found that the selection process was partisan and malafide, according to the 32-page detailed verdict of a three-member bench on petitions by various tour operators challenging the Hajj policy. The detailed verdict was released on Tuesday.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry held that “persons who are at the helm of the Ministry of Religious Affairs” were responsible for the biased selection of tour operators.
The petitioners had argued that the policy was unfair because it did not allow the government to assign quotas to new companies. The bench directed the ministry to receive applications from the petitioners and any others who intended to get themselves enrolled as Hajj tour operators.
The court directed the respondents to treat all tour operators the same when allocating quotas. He said the quotas reserved for private operators must be distributed amongst the companies enrolled with the ministry fairly.
The court noted in the verdict that of the 179,256 pilgrims from Pakistan were due to go on Hajj in 2011, of which 89,628 would travel with private operators. This meant that “a huge number of people have been left at the mercy of [Hajj operators] whose integrity, work and conduct is below standard, as according to the respondents themselves. In these circumstances, such a large number of people cannot be allowed to be humiliated and blackmailed by a specific group of people. Rather, they should be put to the test by introducing new [Hajj tour operators].”
Religious affairs secy issued contempt notice.
The LHC on Tuesday also issued notices to Ministry of Religious Affairs Secretary Shaukat Hayat Durrani and Hajj Director General Syed Abu Akif on a contempt of court petition accusing them of defying the court’s order to cancel the quotas allotted to private Hajj tour organisers and make fresh allotments. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the LHC directed the respondents to file their replies by June 27. 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, but the ministry refused to implement the court orders. He said the 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.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2011.
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