Supreme Court will hear from July 21 (tomorrow) the federation's appeal filed against Lahore High Court verdict in the Hajj quota allocation case. On July 15, a single-member Lahore High Court bench of Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khan ruled that the Hajj Policy 2014, to the extent of grant of quota of 15000 pilgrims to the Private Hajj Tour Operators as per the list of 2013, is unlawful.
The verdict revealed that there was a huge financial difference between the expenses of Hajj through private tour operators and government of Pakistan, saying the government was charging Rs 272,000/- from a pilgrim whereas tour operators were charging even more than Rs 1million from each person. Justice Khan said the Hajj is a sacred duty for the Muslims and it is the bounded duty of the government as well as the private operators to assist the Muslims in performance of Hajj without any burden.
"The Government should cater maximum number of Hajjis by sending them for Hajj. It is interesting to note that we are a Muslim State but our Muslim State is not providing any subsidy or financial assistance to Hajjis whereas a secular country India is repeatedly providing different financial facilities to Muslims for performing Hajj including a subsidy in fares and other expenses," Justice Khan said.
Justice Khan said that the government should have fixed the maximum expenses which the private tour operators could recover from the aspiring Hajiis. The LHC verdict ruled, "The upshot of the discussion is that Hajj Policy-2014 to the extent of grant of quota of 15,000 pilgrims to the Private Hajj Tour Operators as per list of 2013 is declared without lawful authority as the same is against law". Additional Attorney General for Pakistan Attique Shah will appear before the bench.
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