Hajj volunteers: Ministry agrees to implement orders after court rebuke

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday told off Religious Affairs Secretary Chaudhry Azam Samma for defying court orders and not turning up despite repeated notices.

The court had summoned the secretary in connection with a petition challenging the Religious Affairs Ministry’s decision to drop government officials selected by prescribed procedures as Hajj volunteers and including others instead.

Samma told the court on Wednesday that he could not implement court orders to send the approved officials to Saudi Arabia, as the volunteers had already been sent and could not be called back. He said the 10 names dropped from the list would be sent next year.

Justice Khalid Mahmoood Khan observed that the secretary had skipped earlier hearings and was now telling him it was too late to implement the court’s orders. He said that the ministry appeared to be “playing hide and seek with the court” and gave the official 30 minutes to reconsider his statement.

The secretary returned to report that the ministry was now ready to send the 10 volunteers to Saudi Arabia. The court recorded his statement and asked the officials dropped from the list to hand in their documents to the ministry. The judge adjourned proceedings till October 15.

Traffic warden Ali Adnan had filed the petition, stating that he had been dropped from the list even though he had been selected out of the many who applied in a ballot.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2012.