Hajj quotas: ‘Derogatory’ reply lands officer in trouble

Joint secretary said in written reply that court was hampering religious affairs ministry’s functions without reason.

LAHORE:

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to the joint secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs for making “derogatory remarks” about the court in his response to a contempt petition against the ministry over the allocation of Hajj quotas to tour operators.

Sher Ali, the joint secretary, said in his written reply to the petitions that members of the public had approached the courts without reason and the court had summoned ministry officials despite the allocation of Hajj quotas on merit. He said that the court’s actions had hampered the smooth functioning of the ministry.

The chief justice took notice of the bureaucrat’s remarks and ordered security officials to take him into judicial custody. He remarked that such officers brought a bad name to government institutions.

The chief justice asked Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Naseem Kashmiri whether he had approved the secretary’s written reply. The law officer said that he had not read it, only signed it. He said the joint secretary had written the reply on his own.

The deputy attorney general tendered an unconditional apology on behalf of the joint secretary.

The chief justice released Ali, but directed him to submit an answer to the show cause notice on July 9. He said that the court would hear his point of view before sending him to jail.

Meanwhile, a State Bank of Pakistan representative submitted a report showing that five tour operators who had been granted quotas were either bank defaulters or had had loans written off. The official said one of the operators was a defaulter of more than Rs6 million.

The judge directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to cancel the quotas allocated to the defaulters and submit a comprehensive report on the issue at the next hearing on July 9.

The contempt petitions were filed by new tour operators who alleged that the ministry was discriminating against them in the award of quotas. They said the court had on June 6 directed the ministry to also allocate quotas to the new operators, but the ministry had only selected previously registered operators only.

They said that the ministry issued a back-dated notification and announced that the quotas of previously registered operators would be cancelled only on receipt of complaints against them. They sought contempt proceedings against the ministry for ignoring court orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2012.