LAHORE, May 19: A division bench of the Lahore High Court has cancelled Haj quotas of 320 operators for the Haj 2007, declaring their selection process non-transparent, non-competitive and, therefore, illegal.

The bench, comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, hearing an intra-court appeal, observed that to bring fairness into the selection process and efficiency in its outcome, transparency and competition should be ensured in the process.

“It is, therefore, declared that in so far as ‘super-structural rights’ are concerned, the selection of HGOs (Haj Group Organisers) for Haj (December 2006) suffers from non-transparency, non-competition and is, therefore, illegal,” the judgement says.

“Such selection is, accordingly, declared to be void and of no legal effect for the purpose of allocating to parties new rights and liabilities.”

The court said it was the duty of the respondents to select HGOs in a transparent way based on free and open competition.