The federal government decided on Thursday to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against Lahore High Court (LHC) judgement on Hajj Policy 2011 under which 90,000 person would not be able to perform Hajj, resulting in Rs 6 billion loss to the national exchequer.
The LHC on June 6, 2011 had declared that the hajj quota distribution under the Policy was illegal and directed for transparent distribution of quota. The court had barred the Ministry of Religious Affairs from carrying out the process of allocating hajj quota to private tour operators. Babar Awan Former Law Minister, who would represent the federation, told the media persons that an appeal in this regard was drafted and would be filed in the Supreme Court today (Friday).
He said Federation would pray to the apex court for temporarily suspension of the LHC judgement as the detailed judgement of the appeal may come late. The petitioners had contended that the menace of allocating hajj quota to the tour operators of personal liking and disliking had been going on for the last eight years. They said the ministry had been allocating quota among the same tour operators since 2004-05 after receiving kickbacks.
Babar informed, due to LHC judgement 90,000 pilgrims under new Hajj Policy would not be able to perform pilgrim whereas there will be Rs 6 billion loss to the national exchequer. He said the LHC verdict has also annulled five agreements with Saudi government.
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