The Sindh High Court (SHC) took serious notice over the non-compliance of its order by the Hajj Operation Secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and sought his comments as to why the court order was flouted and could not be complied in its letter and spirit.

The court was hearing the identical petitions of Al-Khair Service, Al-Zaitoon and Al-Barakh who have challenged the religious ministry’s action of reducing their allocated Hajj quota by 50 percent. The petitioners’ counsel submitted that the respondent’s August 31 notification regarding the reduction of Hajj operators’ quota by 50 percent was issued without giving any opportunity to the petitioners for explanation. They said that the impugned notification was arbitrary and unjust and requested the court to set aside the notification and restore the allocated Hajj quota of the petitioners.

On the previous hearing, the court had directed that either secretary or deputy or joint secretary, being duly instructed, shall appear on the next date of hearing and answer the court queries regarding the allocation of Hajj quota and policy, and asked to produce documents on the basis of which Hajj quota of certain tour operators had been increased while the same was decreased for other tour operators for the year.

The hearing of the case was fixed at 8:30 am, however, none of federal law officer or representative of Ministry of Religious Affairs appeared before the court. The court took serious notice over the non-appearance and directed the registrar of the court to contact Director of Hajj Operation to appear in person at 11:00 am and if he failed to do so the matter shall be decided with the assistance of the petitioners’ counsel and contempt proceedings shall be initiated against the federal law officer and Ministry of Religious Affairs’ officials concerned for their wilful defiance of court orders.

The matter was taken up after 11:00 a.m. when Deputy Attorney General Umer Hayat Sindhu, the Director Hajj Operation and the section officer of Ministry of Religious Affairs appeared before the court. The court took notice of the disobedience of the secretary despite clear directions and observed that it was tantamount to contempt of the court.

The petitioners’ counsel informed the court that the date of submission of forms has been extended despite court injunction and no permission was sought from the court. The section officer clarified that the date was only extended for the people of Malakand, Waziristan area, owing to the imposition of curfew there and the people were not in a position to fill the Hajj forms. The Director Hajj submitted that it would not be possible to submit the entire record of Hajj operators before the court. He was directed to submit a complete list of applications received from Hajj operators to whom they allocated the quota along with the copies of all forms.

Adjourning the hearing till Wednesday, the SHC’s division bench warned that no further time would be allowed to the respondent’s counsel and an adverse order may be passed against them if compliance was not made as per the direction of the court.

The court also continued an interim order which restrained the respondent from taking adverse action against the petitioners.