LAHORE, July 4: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to the joint secretary of the ministry of religious affairs for criticising the court during hearing of contempt petitions against the ministry about allocation of Haj quota.

Joint Secretary Sher Ali, who appeared to be annoyed with court’s proceedings on the quota issue, submitted his written reply to the chief justice’s court. In the reply, he stated that public approached courts without any reason and the court summoned ministry’s officials despite allocation of Haj quota on merit. He said the court’s proceedings hampered the smooth functioning of the ministry.

Chief Justice Bandial took notice of the bureaucrat’s ‘derogatory’ remarks and ordered the security officials to take him into judicial custody. The CJ remarked that such officers tarnished the image of government’s institutions.

The CJ asked Deputy Attorney-General Naseem Kashmiri whether he signed written reply of the joint secretary after going through it. The law officer, however, said the joint secretary prepared the reply on his own and he (Kashmiri) just signed it.

The law officer also tendered an unconditional apology on behalf of the joint secretary which the court accepted. The chief justice released Sher Ali and directed him to submit his explanation on July 9 to the show-cause notice issued to him. Justice Bandial remarked that the court would hear his point of view before sending him to jail.

Meanwhile, a State Bank of Pakistan’s representative submitted a report showing that five tour operators were bank defaulters or they got loans written off. The official said one operator was a defaulter of more than Rs6 million bank loan.

The judge directed the ministry of religious affairs to cancel quota allocated to the defaulter tour operators and submit a comprehensive report on the issue by next date of hearing (July 9).

The contempt of court petitions were filed by new tour operators who complained about discrimination on the part of the ministry in award of quota.

They said the court in its earlier order had directed the ministry to also allocate Haj quota among the new tour operators. But the ministry ignored the order and awarded quota to previously registered operators only, they said.