LAHORE, Sept 26: The Ministry of Religious Affairs informed the Lahore High Court on Wednesday that 30 newly-registered Haj Group Organisers (HGOs) had been allocated quota while legal requirement were being fulfilled to accommodate more operators.

Director Haj Malik Muhammad Saeed stated this before the court of chief justice during hearing of several contempt of court petitions moved against the ministry by newly-registered HGOs. Mr Saeed said the ministry had received pay orders from 30 new HGOs of Rs500,000 each as surety to provide better services to the pilgrims and would complete the process of allocating them quota by Sept 28.

The chief justice adjourned hearing till Sept 28 and directed the Haj director to come up with a detailed report about allocation of quota.

The petitioners had submitted that the court in its earlier order had directed the ministry to also allocate Haj quota among new tour operators. The court had also ordered that only those operators should be awarded quota who met the criteria given in paragraph 19 of Haj Policy 2012, they said and added the ministry ignored the order and awarded quota to previously registered operators only.

Petitioners prayed to the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the ministry officials.

REQUEST TO CJ: Advocate Wasim Sajjad, on behalf of the federal government, has requested the Lahore High Court chief justice to postpone hearing of a contempt of court petition against President Asif Ali Zardari fixed for Thursday (today).

In an application filed on Wednesday, Advocate Sajjad said he would not be able to appear before a larger bench hearing the contempt petition due to his engagement in a case before the PHC.

Advocate Azhar Siddique, counsel for the petitioner, also filed an application in the high court seeking permission to place on record the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court against the Contempt of Court Act 2012. The application will be taken up by larger bench on Thursday along with main case.

Another lawyer, Sarfraz Husain, moved an application to become a pro forma respondent in the contempt case against the president. The larger bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had dismissed an application of the government to become a necessary party in the case, however, allowed it to become a pro forma respondent. The bench had observed: “The impleadment of the federal government does not make it a party answerable on the merits of the petition as no relief is or can be sought against it in these contempt proceedings.”