LAHORE, July 18: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to put on its website the names of defaulter Hajj Group Organisers (HGOs). Hearing several contempt of court petitions against the ministry for alleged illegal allocation of quota, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked that the ministry authorities had not fulfilled their responsibilities to facilitate the pilgrims.

He regretted that inefficiency of officials had forced courts to do the job of the government.

As the proceedings started on Wednesday, a representative of the Federal Board of Revenue submitted a report about the defaulter tour operators. The report revealed that 41 operators had not submitted their income tax returns while 136 submitted the same after the due date.

It said three operators were defaulters in the list of the State Bank of Pakistan and 19 had not obtained mandatory clearance certificates from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

The counsel for the ministry told the court that hajj quota of at least 1,000 pilgrims had been withdrawn from the defaulter tour operators. The chief justice directed the ministry to further withdraw quota from the defaulter operators.

He ordered it to place the names of the defaulters on its website and also the names of eligible tour operators. The CJ adjourned further hearing till July 24.

The contempt petitions were filed by new tour operators through Advocate Azhar Siddique, pointing out discrimination on the part of the ministry in award of quota.