Contempt proceedings in Hajj quota case: LHC puts bureaucrat in judicial custody

The Lahore High Court Chief Justice on Wednesday directed security officials to take the joint secretary of ministry of religious affairs into judicial custody for criticising the court during the hearing of contempt petitions filed by Hajj operators.
Earlier, the LHC chief justice issued a show-cause notice to the joint secretary. The joint secretary, Sher Ali, had stated in his reply: Public approached courts "without any reason and the court summoned ministry's officials despite allocation of Hajj quota on merit". He said that the court's proceedings hampered the smooth functioning of the ministry.
Chief Justice Umer Atta Bandial took strong notice of the bureaucrat's remarks and custody. The CJ remarked that such officers brought bad name for government's institutions. The CJ asked Deputy Attorney-General Naseem Kashmiri whether he had read the joint secretary's reply before signing it. The law officer said that the joint secretary had prepared the reply and only he had signed it.
The law officer tendered an unconditional apology on behalf of the joint secretary which was accepted by the court. Releasing Sher Ali, the LHC Chief Justice directed him to submit his explanation on the show-cause notice by July 9. Justice Bandial remarked that the court would hear his point of view before "sending him to jail".
Meanwhile, a representative of the State Bank of Pakistan submitted a report showing that five tour operators were bank defaulters or had gotten loans written off. The official said one operator owed banks more than Rs 6 million. The CJ directed the ministry of religious affairs to cancel quota allocated to the defaulting tour operators and submit a detailed report in this regard by the next hearing.
New tour operators, who complained discrimination on part of the ministry in award of quota, had filed the contempt of court petitions. They said the ministry was awarding quota only to previously registered operators. They pointed out that the ministry issued a backdated notification and announced that quota of previously registered operators would be cancelled on receipt of complaint against them.
The petitioners submitted that the court had ordered that only those operators should be awarded quota who met the criteria given in paragraph 19 of Hajj Policy 2012. They, therefore, requested the court to start contempt of court proceedings against the ministry for ignoring the court's orders.