Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday ordered the Ministry of Religious Affairs to allocate haj quota of 50 pilgrims to 14 haj group organisers (HGOs) who offered haj services at Rs 190,000 to 247,000.
The court further directed the ministry to complete the allocation of pilgrims quota to the HGOs by July 22 and submit a report in this regard.
The chief justice passed the orders on petitions filed by Travel Shop and others challenging The Haj Policy 2013 and allocation of haj quota.
As proceedings started, Additional Advocate General Abdul Hai Gillani appeared before the court and submitted a list of HGOs who were declared eligible for the available quota of 910 pilgrims. He said only those organisers were excluded from the list who did not fulfill the criteria.
However, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that the HGOs who offered inexpensive services were excluded from the list.
After hearing the arguments, the court observed that the quota should be allocated to those HGOs who had umra experience and offered inexpensive haj services.
The chief justice ordered to allocate a quota of 50 pilgrims each to HGOs who offered haj at Rs 190,000 to Rs 247,000 and set July 22 the next date of hearing.
