Islamabad (January 26, 2018): The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony halted on Friday the balloting of official Hajj applications due to ‘unclear’ policy on the quota of operators as well as a court stay order.
The lucky draw was to be held at 4pm today but a meeting of the ministry headed by Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf decided that the process will be held later. The new date for the draw will be announced afterwards.
Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Secretary Khalid Masood shared that the balloting has been halted due to various verdicts by three different courts on the quota issue.
He said that the Lahore High Court had ordered that quota for government and private Hajj operators should be 50/50.
Later, a two-member bench of the Sindh High Court had ordered that the quota should be 60 percent for government operators and 40 percent for private operators, he remarked, adding that on Thursday the Sindh High Court’s Sukkur Bench ordered a stay on the balloting process.
A petitioner had approached the high court against the clause in the government’s new policy which states that individuals need to wait for a certain period before performing the holy pilgrimage again.
On the other hand, federal cabinet had decided last year to keep the quota for government at 67 percent and for private tour operators at 33 percent, Masood said.
Hajj quota has become a chronic issue since it surfaces every year with a number of petitions instituted against the government’s policy.
People proceeding on Hajj can either use private tour operators or the government quota which is finalised through a ballot.
On May 17 last year, the Supreme Court ordered the government to reframe the newly approved Hajj policy 2017 by accommodating those private Haj tour operators who were denied quota earlier, adding that no Haj group organisers should suffer on account of being a comparatively new or junior entrant.
A staggering 374,829 applications for Hajj were received by the government as part of its Government Hajj scheme in 10 days, according to Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf.
About 80,000 applicants intend to depart from Karachi, 71,000 from Lahore, 67,000 from Islamabad, 64,000 from Peshawar, 31,000 from Multan, 17,000 from Quetta, 16,000 from Faisalabad, 13,000 from Sialkot, 5,000 from Sukkur, and 3,000 from Rahim Yar Khan.
Under the new Hajj policy the cost for the pilgrimage will be the same as last year; Rs280, 000 for pilgrims from Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Rs270,000 for pilgrims from Sindh and Balochistan.
The meeting of the ministry has now decided to challenge SHC’s stay order in Supreme Court after which a new date for the draw will be finalized.
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