The Supreme Court rejected on Friday a plea seeking suspension of the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict against allocation of Haj quota and decided to hear the matter in detail from July 4.
The apex court observed that it could not suspend the LHC judgement without hearing the points of view of all parties concerned. A three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan was hearing various appeals against the LHC judgement on allocation of Haj quota filed by the federal government and several tour operators.
The LHC had ruled against the distribution of Haj quota under the Haj Policy 2011 and had cancelled the quota allotted to 650 tour operators. The tour operators affected by this decision as well as the government filed petitions in the apex court saying that the LHC ruling would adversely affecting up to 90,000 pilgrims. During the hearing, the counsels for applicants appeared before the bench and pleaded the court to suspend the LHC judgement against the Haj Policy, but the court rejected their plea.
Earlier, Muhammad Akram Sheikh, counsel for Al-Rahem Travels and Tours (Pvt) Limited and 16 other petitioners contended that there were several flaws in the LHC judgement.