ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly standing committee on religious affairs has unearthed allocation of Haj quota in violation of Haj Policy and standards set by the higher courts.

A report of the committee (copy available with Dawn) has established that 19 Haj group organisers (HGOs) did not possess any authentic document to prove their eligibility. Some of them were awarded Haj quota on fake documents.

It is pertinent to mention that after complaints by people who performed Haj in 2013, a sub-committee, chaired by MNA Pirzada Syed Imran Ahmad Shah, was formed to probe the issue.

Other members of the sub-committee were Sahibzada Faizul Hassan, Malik Abdul Ghaffar Dogar and Shugufta Jumani.

Nineteen Haj group organisers do not have any authentic document to prove their eligibility for Haj quota

According to the report, the committee observed that the quota allocated to 19 HGOs was not only against the provisions of the Haj Policy 2012 but also in violation of the written criteria communicated by the ministry of religious affairs to the chartered accountant (CA) firms hired to evaluate the working of the HGOs.

It may be noted that the directives of the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued in 2013 to ensure merit in the Haj quota were also ignored.

The sub-committee also noted that the essential conditions set for the HGOs such as experience of having organised Umrah, certification of not being blacklisted or penalised (Mukhalsa), provisions for paid-up capital, clearance from the FBR and other financial institutions were not followed.

Most of the 19 HGOs under review were found lacking the basic qualifications given in the written criteria and elaborated in the LHC orders.

Interestingly, there were also some HGOs who had shown no experience in the application form but were awarded the quota.

The 19 companies were evaluated by three specified chartered accountant firms who were also invited to attend the sub-committee meeting held on May 20.

During the meeting, the CA firms admitted that they had not verified the documents of HGOs provided by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The report said it was regrettable that instead of owning the responsibility the officers of the ministry of religious affairs tried to shift the blame of mismanagement to the CA firms.

“In fact, the ministry had forwarded the documents of applicant HGOs to the third party without first establishing their completeness, genuineness and accuracy,” the report added.

The committee recommended that the quota allocated to the 19 companies in 2013 may be suspended until proper evaluation of the applications/documents was carried out in accordance with the standards laid down in the Haj Policy 2012 and the dictum of Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The committee further recommended that the documentation of the companies should be re-scrutinised and assessed along with all freshly enrolled HGOs so as to establish a merit list based on a competent analysis and the authenticity of the award given by evaluators.

The committee suggested that in order to avoid such incidents in future, the award given by any third party must be critically analysed for quality control and regulatory compliance.

Joint Secretary (Haj) Shahzad Ahmed while talking to Dawn said so far the report of the sub-committee had not reached the ministry so he was not aware if the committee had recommended banning the HGOs.

The recommendations of the sub-committee will be implemented in letter and sprit, he added.

“There is a ‘complaint disposal cell’ in the ministry which deals with the complaints and appropriate action is taken against the HGOs. Not only fines are imposed but also companies are banned and their Haj quota is also reduced because of the complaints,” he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Shahzad said the minimum quota of a company was 50 and maximum 300.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2014