Hajj troubles again

Once again, corruption has touched Hajj. It will be recalled that a religious affairs minister in the PPP government, Saeed Kazmi, was allegedly involved in a fraud relating to pilgrims in 2011 and there have been other allegations relating to quotas and travel arrangements since. Now, a parliamentary panel, on April 29, has directed the ministry of religious affair not to allocate a Hajj quota to 19 private tour operators because there are serious doubts about their credentials. A National Assembly subcommittee on religious affairs is acutely aware of the sensitivity surrounding corruption and Hajj, and it wants the credentials of the 19 suspect companies to be properly verified before they get a quota. There appears to be evidence that they have already received preferential treatment and if this is correct, then it is clear that corruption reaches deep into the very bodies that ought to be exemplars of religious and moral values.

The ministry of religious affairs has been asked to submit a report to the parliamentary subcommittee by May 20 and we must wait until then for further insights — but there is no smoke without fire. Private tour operators are already up in arms about the way in which the allocation was made and 1,500 of them have filed complaints saying that they were not awarded marks that were a true reflection of their credentials. Some of the marks allocated to the suspect operators are nonsensical — one of them, for instance, was awarded 20 marks out of a possible 15 in one category, thus ensuring that they go on to the ‘merit’ list.

The credibility of the religious affairs ministry is once again on the line. The number of applications for Hajj is substantially up this year and there is stiff competition for a place. There are obvious points at which arms can be twisted in conjunction with palms greased in order to gain preference and it is up to the ministry to be vigilant if it is to preserve its reputation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2014.

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