July 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 19, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 22: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the top government lawyer to inform it about government’s Haj policy.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Yousaf and Justice Qaim Jan Khan which had taken up a case moved by the religious affairs ministry to defend its policy of allocating Haj quota to private tour operators, directed the acting secretary of the ministry to respond to the allegations levelled by different tour operators. The case will be taken up again on Wednesday.

The directions were issued when during the hearing Senator Babar Awan, legal counsel for a private tour operator, Jafaria Alliance, contested the ministry’s claim that it had reached an agreement with the Saudi government regarding formulation of a Haj policy.

A number of private tour operators who were denied what they termed reasonable quota by the ministry had moved the Lahore High Court saying that the ministry had arbitrarily allotted quota without any criteria of selection.

The high court ordered the ministry to review its policy of allotting Haj quota.

On July 12, 2007, the Supreme Court had cancelled the provisional Haj quota for private tour operators allotted by the ministry and directed formation of an independent committee to scrutinise provisional allotment of quotas and their re-allocation.

During the hearing, Talib Razvi representing the ministry had informed the apex court that after due deliberations the Saudi government through the agreement with Pakistan had imposed a condition that only those operators would be given quota who had rendered services last year. An English version of the agreement was also submitted by the counsel in the court.