A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday challenging the Haj Policy 2011 and discriminatory allotment of the Haj quota. The Travel Shop Private Limited and 12 other Haj tour operators filed the petition, through their counsel Azhar Siddique, requesting the court to order issuance of the Haj quota on merit after cancelling all previous notifications and quota allotments, which were based on mala fide. The petitioners made the federal government, Federal Religious Affairs Ministry, the federal religious affairs secretary, Federal Law Ministry, the Haj director, the Competition Commission of Pakistan and seven others a party in the petition.
The petitioners submitted that the Federal Religious Affairs Ministry allotted the Haj quota 2011 to private tour operators on basis of personal liking and political influence despite clear directions of superior courts to follow merit in allotment of the Haj quota. They maintained that travel agents wrote many times to the Federal Religious Affairs Ministry to provide the Haj policy 2011 but it was neither provided nor advertised. They said that five notifications had been issued according to the policy, which was based on mala fide. The petitioners submitted that paid-up capital for new operators had been increased from Rs 5 million to 20 million and Rs 0.5 million would also be received for the Haj Fund.
bail application dismissed: Magistrate Malik Asif on Saturday dismissed the post-arrest bail application of Muhammad Tahir, deputy director agriculture (audit and accounts) water management wing Lahore, nominated in a cheque dishonouring case of Rs 1.45 million.The accused gave a cheque to Dr Waqar Chaudhry, which bounced afterwards. According to details, Waqar gave Rs 1.45 million to Tahir to purchase a plot but the accused embezzled the money. Later, Waqar lodged a first information report against Tahir and the accused, during hearing of the pre-arrest bail application, gave a cheque worth Rs 1.45 million to the complainant in court.
Petition filed in LHC challenging Haj Policy 2011
