ISLAMABAD, July 12: The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended over 77,000 Haj quotas for private tour operators and ordered formation of an independent committee to scrutinise provisional allotment of quotas and their reallocation.

A three-member bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Falak Sher and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar also ordered the appointment of a retired Supreme Court judge (most probably Justice (retd) Karamat Nazir Bhindari) to head the committee consisting of two or three senators and the religious affairs secretary. The committee should complete the scrutiny within 10 days so that the Haj process is not affected.

The bench had taken up for hearing a challenge by the ministry of religious affairs against the Lahore High Court ruling to review its policy of allotting Haj quotas on the allegations of giving arbitrary and discriminatory quota to private tour operators.

A number of private tour operators who were denied reasonable quota by the ministry had moved the high court contending that the ministry arbitrarily allotted the quota without any qualified criteria of selection. The Lahore High Court had directed the ministry to review its policy of allotting Haj quota.

Justice Javed Iqbal said: “The religious affairs ministry will have no power or role to make allocation for any quota to any private tour operator for the upcoming Haj.”

He said that a comprehensive and transparent Haj policy should be framed for the next year.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, the legal counsel of one of the aggrieved tour operators, argued to completely cleanse the Haj Directorate of the ministry to ensure more facilities for pilgrims.

Justice Iqbal said: “The Supreme Court will not let anyone turn the Haj into a business venture.” He said that this was a religious obligation and the court was concerned about the rights of pilgrims.

However, Wakeel Ahmed Khan, secretary, Religious Affairs, told the bench that the ministry was already behind schedule since the booking of residential buildings had started in Saudia Arabia.

The court was of the view that formal applications for Haj should be received from the Islamic month of Shawwal and that the court should fix a maximum limit of 200 seats to every operator.

However, Justice Falak Sher proposed that the maximum limit should be 500 but the federal secretary opposed the idea by submitting that there were many operators of good reputation who deserve to have more seats than others.

The secretary also cited the experience of Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan to substantiate his claim by stating that the SAG was so satisfied with the services of a private tour operator when he recently offered Haj that he even recommended maximum quota for them.

Justice Javed Iqbal said: “They might have spread a golden carpet for the attorney general but this is not the case with every common pilgrim.”

Barrister Aitzaz also submitted that there should not be any denominational division of pilgrims as the common peopled faced humiliation of long queues and were accommodated in congested buildings whereas wealthy people enjoy VIP protocol. He said: “This is against the spirit of Islam.”