LAHORE, July 22: The Lahore High Court chief justice directed on Monday the Ministry of Religious Affairs to allocate the Haj quota to 19 Haj Group Organisers (HGOs) who offered a bid of up to Rs250,000.

The chief justice heard several petitions filed by newly-enrolled HGOs alleging that the ministry was not allocating the quota among qualified organisers who had offered lowest bids.

A ministry’s official suggested that the court should set a maximum limit of Haj expenses, but the chief justice observed that fixing expense limit was not the job of court. The purpose of court’s proceedings was to make the Haj affordable for every common citizen, the CJ said.

Adjourning the hearing till July 26, the CJ directed the ministry to complete the process of allocating the quota to 19 eligible organizers including the issuance of offer and recognition letters.

The petitioners had also alleged that the ministry was awarding the quota on the basis of personal liking and disliking and ignoring the merit.

They said most of operators included in the list had no previous experience and some of them even did not have their own offices. — Staff Reporter