Hajj travel: Religious affairs secy promises to allot quota to 10 new operators
Religious Affairs Secretary Muhammad Azam Samma on Tuesday undertook before the Lahore High Court that Hajj quota of 540 pilgrims will be allocated among at least 10 newly registered hajj group organisers (HGOs).
Appearing before Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial to defend against contempt of court charges against the ministry by newly registered Hajj tour operators, the secretary stated that the quotas will be allotted by September 14 after necessary approvals from the government of Saudi Arabia.
The tour operators had accused the ministry of discrimination in allocation of Hajj quota.
Earlier, the secretary had insisted that quota could not be allocated to the newly registered tour operators.
The CJ had observed that the court had issued order to the respondent ministry on June 6 to allocate quota on merit among eligible new tour operators.
“It appears that you do not want to allot them quota,” the CJ said.
Advocate Azhar Siddique, the petitioners’ counsel, said that the government of Saudi Arabia had allowed 10,000 more pilgrims from Pakistan, but the Ministry of Religious Affairs had declined it.
The CJ warned the secretary contempt of court proceedings would be initiated against him if the order was not implemented. The secretary then sought time to seek instructions from Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah.
The CJ deferred hearing for 15 minutes. The secretary then said that the ministry will implement court’s orders.
The CJ adjourned the hearing till September 14 and directed the secretary to return with a compliance report. He also directed the ministry to issue enrolment letters to eligible tour operators.
Earlier the petitioners submitted that the Supreme Court in its July 7, 2011, order had observed that the government should observe transparency at the time of making the 2012 Hajj Policy. They said that the ministry and 726 tour operators had last year said that they had received money from the pilgrims and their lists had been sent to Saudi Arabia. The petitioners said that the ministry was once again giving quota to the same tour operators ignoring new Hajj tour operators.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2012.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1724486955-0/Untitled-design-(12)1724486955-0-270x192.webp "twin cities face severe food crisis")
As on 14 september 2012 in LHC the Ministry of Religious Affairs told the honorable court that quota of 490 pilgrims will be allocated to 48 newly registered Haj Group Organizers (HGOs) Becouse these companies fulfill all the required requirements i.e IATA and have claimed licence agreement and NOCs from Saudi Government.
The Point is the whether all the HGOs who got hajj quota for 2012 had the IATA license and got the NOCs from Saudi Governmet? Has it been mentioned in Hajj Policy 2012? If yes then has it been published in advertisement on 15 june news paper. Not at all. It is not possible for fresh HGOs to get the NOCs and License agreement prior the hajj quota allocation from homeland country. The MORA reluctantly published the Notice to new HGOs lately on 31.08.2012 which was published on Ministry website on 02.09.2012. . These are only delaying tactics