Consumer court: Umrah tour organiser sued for Rs100,000

Petitioner says she was not provided pick and drop from hotels.

LAHORE:

A consumer court on Tuesday issued a notice to the chief executive of Dewan Travel Crest for September 4, in a suit seeking Rs100,000 damages for providing poor services to the petitioner during Umrah.

Ghazala Qaisar submitted that she went for an Umrah from March 25 to April 9, paying Dewan Travel Crest Rs86,500. She said the package included a return air ticket, a seven-nights stay in Mecca and an eight-nights stay in Medina. Her residence was to be within 500 metres from Haram and she was to be provided transportation from Jeddah Airport to the hotel in Mecca, from Mecca to Medina and so forth. She said the respondent claimed that she would be staying at Nubla Hotel in Mecca and at Qasar-i-Abhwan in Medina.

However, she said, she was not provided transport nor had the company booked a room for her in the hotels mentioned. Qaiser said that her guide [an employee of Dewan Travel Crest] had misbehaved and used abusive language.

She told the court that she had been taken to dingy hotels far away from Masjid-i-Nabwi. She said that she had complained to the respondent but they did not adress her grievance. She prayed the court to direct the respondent to pay her Rs100,000 as damages.

Dewan Travel Crest Chief Executive Samar said that Qaiser had not gone for Umrah through her company, but through Amjad Fareed, who also ran a travel agency.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2013.