Ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs neither blacklisted those tour operators who violated the rules and regulations and fleeced the Haj pilgrims nor compensated the victims who had to pay transport fare, cost of 'Qurbani' and other expenses. This was stated by the Chairman of Action Committee Shaikh Muhammad Anwar while addressing a press conference on Thursday along with Haji Muhammad Hanif, Haji Muhammad Ismail, Haji Khalil Ahmed Chaudhry.
He said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ijaz-ul-Haq should have to take action against such tour operators and corrupt elements of the ministry who are share holders of operators.
He also appealed to the Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to collect the list and record of the tour operators who became millionaire in a month and they fleeced the Haj pilgrims. He demanded for cutting down the service fee from 500 dollars to 50 or 100 dollars to facilitate the faithful.
He said that government should have to blacklist such tour operators and travel agents who had plundered the Haji pilgrims in private Haj scheme and violated the agreement and offers made by them and recovered the amount to compensate the victims besides cancellation of their permission, Haj pilgrims who were looted by the private tour operators and travel agents have appealed to President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to frame new Haj policy with their consultation because they had experienced many difficulties in performing "Haj" because tour operators betrayed them and they did not fulfil the requirements of the agreement.
He said that tour operators took them to Lahore from Multan and back by train while they were binding to take by air. They did not provide foreign exchange in Saudi Arabia for "Qurbani" or for shopping nor they provided transport for Mina, Arafat and Mazdalfa. They provided residential facilities in slum area of Makkah Mukarma. In Mina they provided tents of 30 X 11 feet for 52 persons and ladies were forced to stay with "Na-Mehram" males.
He further said that Khuddam-ul-Hajjaj were tour operators' own family member who did not provide any service or facility to them and all expenses on laundering the clothes or transport were met by them.
Explaining the details, Labbaik Holy Tours, Multan had got Rs 42.5 million (Rs 85,000 per head) from 500 Haj pilgrims and fixed the departure date for December 20, 2004 to leave for Jeddah but it asked them to reach at Lahore on December 30. He pretended that seats are not available in PIA flight for Lahore. Next day they left for Jeddah where this company provided us residential facilities in slum area where they kept their Ahram clean. He said that they did not provide money for shopping or any other expenses, nor provided transport nor make payment for "Qurbani". Many other tour operators created troubles for the Haj pilgrims.
Comments
Comments are closed.