Free Hajj: Supreme Court tells FIA to recover money from pilgrims

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to recover every single penny from those who performed Hajj during the last two years on taxpayers' expense, within a week's time.
A six-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayaz Ahmed, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing a suo motu case regarding the massive corruption during Hajj arrangements last year.
The court also directed the FIA to initiate criminal cases against those who helped in the scam as well as those who flouted rules and regulations by sending 270 persons to perform Hajj on government expenses. All those involved in misuse of government money, the bench noted, should be sent to prison straight. The FIA submitted a report to the apex court which said a large number of pilgrims were sent for Hajj by religious affairs ministry without charging a single penny.
The agency report also revealed that the interior ministry also wrote a letter to religious affairs ministry for sending officials to perform Hajj, besides asking special arrangement for the pilgrims. Additional Director General FIA, Javed Bukhari, told the court that about Rs 35 million were due against those persons who preformed Hajj on the expense of tax payers' money in 2009-10. Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked that the country is not being governed by a king that interior ministry writes a letter for free of cost Hajj for some individuals and the religious affairs ministry follows the instructions blindly by ignoring all the rules.
Expressing unhappiness over the pace of investigations into Hajj corruption, Justice Chaudhry observed that the investigations were unsatisfactory as the investigators have failed even to produce the list of pilgrims who performed Hajj on government expenses.
This is very disappointing to note that FIA has all resources, he remarked, despite that it has failed to recover the amount from people who performed Hajj by misusing the money from national kitty. The secretary religious affairs ministry Shaukat Hayat Durrani apprised the bench that Khuddam-ul-Hujjaj were selected from Pakistan to serve the pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
Justice Javed Iqbal remarked that 95 per cent Khuddam-ul-Hujjaj were sent to Saudi Arabia from the constituency of former religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi. Why transparency was not ensured and rules and regulations were not followed while selecting these people (Khuddam-ul-Hujjaj), he asked. Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that secretary religious affairs ministry should have ensured his presence in Saudi Arabia to look after the pilgrims besides giving his cell number to them during Hajj. He maintained that anyone trying to cover up the scam was an accomplice in the corruption case. The hearing was adjourned till April 22.