A division bench of Lahore High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on petitions filed by newly registered Hajj Group Organisers (HGOs) challenging the Hajj Policy 2013 and the allocation of quotas by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Additional Attorney General Abdul Hai Gillani on Thursday submitted that the Supreme Court had set aside the interim orders of a single bench of the LHC for Hajj quota allocation through bidding.
The bench of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Shoaib Saeed directed the government to make laws for the allotment of Hajj quotas next year and also to form a commission to discuss how to reduce the cost of the pilgrimage in light of a report by the Competition Commission.
The bench remarked that the government needed to legislate to regulate the business, worth Rs60 billion annually, in order to make it more transparent and also to make the pilgrimage more affordable.
Petitioners’ counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique had submitted that the ministry had not allotted quotas to the lowest bidders. He also accused the ministry of violating its Hajj Policy of 2013, which states that it must be made cheaper. He said quotas had been allotted to 19 ineligible companies.
Siddique said that while the LHC had ordered the ministry to allot quotas to companies offering rates of Rs250,000 per pilgrim, it had allotted them to companies charging Rs361,000 per pilgrim.
The LHC had earlier directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to grant 18 newer HGOs offering cheaper rates the contract to arrange the pilgrimage for 910 people. The court had ruled that companies that were at least three years old were eligible.
The older HGOs challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which set aside the LHC order on July 30 as court interference in policy matters.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2013.