Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday ordered the Ministry of Religious Affairs to finalise the criteria for registering Hajj Group Organisers (HGO).
The CJ directed an additional attorney general, who appeared on behalf of the ministry, not to allocate quota without first informing the court the criteria set to allocate quota.
Justice Bandial was hearing several petitions moved by newly-registered HGOs challenging the quota allocation process.
On Thursday, the petitioner’s counsel told the court that “90 per cent of the HGOs” did not provide food to the pilgrims despite charging them for it. Chief Justice Bandial said the ministry should keep in mind the financial position of the HGOs and whether or not they would be able to provide pilgrims food and transportation facility from their places of residence in Makkah and Madina to the Haram.
On Thursday, the petitioner’s counsel told the court the organisers had collected Rs19 million so far as compensatory fund. Under the 2013 Hajj Policy, he said, each pilgrim was required to deposit Rs5,000. The additional attorney general told the court that the money had been kept in a fund for the welfare of the pilgrims that would be managed by a private company. The CJ remarked that the fund should not be supervised by a private company but the ministry.
The hearing was then adjourned till June 5.
At previous hearings the court was told that the ministry had allotted quota to 726 operators in a day without proper verification. The petitioners allege that paras 19 and 21 of the 2013 Hajj Policy have been amended with a mala fide intention. On June 6, 2012, the LHC had ordered the ministry to allocate quota of 5,000 pilgrims to newly-registered tour operators but, say the petitioners, only 192 pilgrims were allocated to new tour operators.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2013.