The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday directed the Religious Affairs Ministry to allocate quota to three Haj Group Organisers (HGOs). LHC Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, while hearing a petition calling for contempt proceedings against Federal Minister of Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah and Secretary Muhammad Azam Samaa over not complying with a court order on allocation of Haj quota among newly-registered HGOs, ordered the quota to be allocated to three out of 10 HGOs who fulfilled the merit requirements. The new HGOs, through their counsel Azhar Siddique, argued that the ministry deliberately ignored the court’s directions and did not allocate Haj quota among the petitioner-organizers. During the hearing, the religious affairs ministry, through Haj Director (Lahore) Saeed Ahmad Malik, presented a list of 10 Haj group organizers who fulfilled the merit requirements. Malik requested the court to assign quota to any of the HGOs of the list that he said fulfilled the allocation requirements. The court directed the ministry to allocate quota to three out of the 10 HGOs after developing a consensus among all parties concerned. The petitioners’ counsel, Azhar Siddique, told the court that Hafiz Sher Ali, who had been serving as a joint secretary at the ministry, was transferred from his position for cooperating with the court. STAFF REPORT
Siddique said a transfer for cooperating with the court was the equivalent to committing contempt and requested the court to initiate proceedings against those behind Ali’s transfer.
The court said it would determine whether or not the act of transfer was malafide.
