ISLAMABAD: With only four months left for launching Haj operations, the government has yet to conduct balloting for the pilgrimage.

The Haj balloting was scheduled to be held on January 28, but the Sindh High Court (SHC) granted stay on a petition filed by a private tour operator.

The SHC had granted stay till January 31 and the ministry of religious affairs had approached the Supreme Court against the stay order. And the apex court recently directed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to club all objections to the Haj Policy 2018, filed in different courts across the country and constitute a single bench or a divisional bench to dispose them of.

Minister voices concern as time is running out and no way forward is in sight

“We are worried as time is running out but do not see any way forward,” said Minister of State for Religious Affairs Pir Aminul Hasnaat.

Talking to Dawn, he said: “The way things are going on I fear that the people will blame us with everything, while we have nothing to do with this delay. Eventually the media too will blame the ministry and the politicians.”

The worrying thing for authorities this year is that Pakistan’s main competitor India has hired all residential places near the city centre.

“The Indian authorities used to be late every year, but this time they have overhauled their system and completed all arrangements in November 2017, leaving negligible space to live in Markazia,” the minister of state said.

The ministry of religious affairs is also not aware of the situation. “We have yet not been conveyed about the decision to be taken by the IHC chief justice,” said an official of the ministry.

The official said the hearing would resume after a bench was constituted at the IHC.

The main objections against the Haj Policy included that a person who has performed Haj during the past three years would be ineligible to apply even under the private Haj scheme and a person who has performed Haj through the government scheme is not eligible to apply for the same scheme again.

The restriction to perform Haj with a gap of three years would make the high-end pilgrims ineligible and could throw competition among the private tour operators.

A petition has also been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the Haj Policy.

Private operators have demanded 50 per cent share of total pilgrims. Currently, the government quota is 60pc and the share of private operators is 40pc.

The government charges Rs280,000 for Haj from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Rs270,000 from Sindh and Balochistan.

“Since the private Haj operators charge from Rs500,000 to Rs1.4 million they are demanding higher quota,” said the ministry official.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2018