PESHAWAR, May 22: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to consider past performance of private Haj tour operators at holy places in Saudi Arabia along with their financial position before shortlisting them for Haj quota.

Religious Affairs Secretary (Haj) Shahzad Ahmad told a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth that scrutiny of Haj tour operators had been in progress through chartered accountants and once the exercise was complete, merit list of tour operators would be compiled for quota allotment.

The bench directed the secretary to look into complaints against private companies before penalising and not enlisting those found guilty of culpable.

The secretary said keeping in view the last year’s performance of private tour companies on the occasion of Haj, the ministry had blacklisted one company, reduced quota of three companies and fined Rs8 million to 20 others.

He added that the affected persons were paid compensation.

The bench was hearing two contempt of the court petitions of private companies, Bannu Travel and Tour Private Limited and Malik Haj and Umra Service, which claimed that they had been discriminated against by the ministry during the Haj quota allotment.

The petitioners said earlier, the court had directed the government to consider them for award of Haj quota but they had yet not been given the said quota.

The secretary said through qualified chartered accountants, they had been conducting audit of the private tour companies and had been looking into their financial health, their status with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and their paid capital and balance sheets.

He said the exercise would be completed in 10 days and later, they would decide about the Haj quota.

Lawyers for the petitioners said the government should not only consider the financial health of the companies as on that count, their clients could not compete with companies of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

They added that the past performance in Umra services should also be counted and on competitive basis, it should be seen how much facilities were provided by a company in Saudi Arabia and at what rate.

The petitioners said examination of their clients’ record was conducted last year but even then, they were not awarded any quota. They added that 96 other companies were given Haj quota.

The secretary said the said companies were given quotas on the directives of the Supreme Court.

The bench observed that the acid test for Haj and Umra operators was what they delivered to visitors of Saudi holy places during Haj and Umra.

It directed the secretary to see whether the clients who hired their services were pleased with quality of service provided and the operators should be enlisted after due probe and comprehensive inquiry.

The bench later adjourned hearing directing to complete scrutiny of the petitioners’ record within 10 days.