March 02, 2008	Sunday	Safar 23, 1429

LAHORE, March 1: The District Consumer Court has ordered a Kasur-based travel agency owner to pay Rs405,000 as litigation cost and compensation for causing inconvenience and agony to 14 persons his firm sent for performing Umrah.

Haji Arshad Ali and other petitioners submitted that they collectively paid Rs726,000 for the 28-day Umrah package to Irfani Madni Travels owner Haji Khalid Bashir Chishti. The respondent promised good quality transportation and boarding facilities during their stay in Saudi Arabia.

They submitted that the respondent promised a flight package from Lahore but, instead, took them to Karachi where they remained stranded for hours. Moreover, the 28-day Umra package was reduced for some of them to 14 days and for others to three weeks.

The services provided in Saudi Arabia were also unsatisfactory, they added.

The court ordered ex-parte proceedings against the respondent and recorded evidence after he failed to appear despite being summoned.