Islamabad, the 10th July, 2017. A meeting of the Standing Committee on M/o Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony met today at 11:00 a.m. in the Committee Room of Ministry of Religious Affairs & Inter-faith Harmony Islamabad, under the Chairmanship of Hafiz Abdul Kareem, MNA to discuss the following agenda:-

i)                     Recitation from the Holy Quran;

ii)                   Confirmation of the minutes of the previous meeting.

iii)                  Briefing on the award of quota to Hajj Tour Operators especially after directions of Supreme Court of Pakistan

iv)                  Current status of arrangements for Hajj, 2017 both in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

v)                   Any other item with the permission of the chair.

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting after recitation of the Holy Quran. The Committee had already recommended in the previous meeting of 3rd July, 2017 to reject the list of 29 new companies which was approved by the Federal Cabinet in the Policy formulation Committee and asked the Ministry to reframe the policy to distribute the quota of private Hajj scheme keeping in view the small provinces like KPK, Balochistan and Azad Jamu and Kashmir  with the formula that  40% Private Sector quota of 71684 pilgrims out of which 10% quota of pilgrims should be decreased of those who have more than 150 pilgrims, which becomes 7168 pilgrims whereas new tour operators should not be given quota of more than 50 pilgrims. and report to the Committee in its next meeting of 10th July, 2017.  But the M/o Religious Affairs has repeated the same list in its next meeting and could not taken the Standing Committee into confidence due to which the committee expressed displeasure and walked out having protest against the M/o Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony for non-implementation on the recommendations of the Standing Committee.

The meeting was attended by Malik Abdul Ghafar Dogar, Mr. Bhawan Das, Ms. Kiran Imran Dar, Ms. Shagufta Jumani, Mr, Ramesh Lal Mr. Ali Muhammad Khan, Mr. Lal Chand Malhi, Molvi Agha Muhammad Ms. Shahida Akhtar Ali, Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqub, , and Minister of State for Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony besides senior officers from the Ministry.