The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to conduct an inquiry in the allocation of Hajj quota among Hajj group organizers within a month and submit a report on the issue by November 9.
Chief Justice LHC Umar Ata Bandial heard the petition alleging unequal distribution of Hajj quota among newly-registered Hajj Group Organisers (HGOs).
The petitioners submitted before the court that in its earlier order, the ministry had been directed to allocate Haj quota among new tour operators. The court had also ordered that only those operators should be awarded quota who met the criteria given in paragraph 19 of Hajj Policy 2012.
The new HGOs, through their counsel Azhar Siddique, argued that the Federal Ministry for Religious Affairs had deliberately ignored the directions issued by the court and had not allocated Haj quota among the petitioner-organizers and instead awarded the quota to previously registered operators only.
The petition further claimed that the quota has been allotted on political grounds and not on the basis of merit.
On September 28, Justice Bandial had issued show-cause notices to Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah and Secretary Muhammad Azam Samaa for not complying with the court’s directives on the quota allocation among newly-registered HGOs and directed them to appear in person before the court on October 2.
Earlier on September 25, Justice Bandial had ordered the religious affairs ministry to allocate quota of 490 pilgrims to be distributed among 68 newly-registered HGOs. The following day, the ministry had informed the court that 30 new HGOs had been allocated quota while legal requirement were being fulfilled to accommodate more operators.
