The High Court has issued a rule asking why the Hajj package cost announced by the government this year should not be declared to be against the public interest.
The HC bench of Justice Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Atabullah issued the rule on Monday (January 8) following a writ petition.
The court asked the authorities concerned to reply in two weeks. The Secretary of the Religious Affairs Ministry, secretary of the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, and director general of the Islamic Foundation and Hajj Association of Bangladesh (HAB) have been made respondents to the rule.
Advocate Md Ashraf-Uz-Zaman, a Supreme Court lawyer and chief coordinator of the Al-Quran Study Centre, filed the writ petition. He confirmed the matter to the media.
The lawyer took part in the hearing in the High Court, while lawyers Advocate Ahsan Ullah, Advocate Humayun Kabir Tamim, Advocate Md Azizul Islam and Advocate Md Omar Faruk assisted him.
Advocate Md Ashraf-Uz-Zaman said, “The High Court observed that it is necessary to allow all aircraft to transport passengers during Hajj.”
According to the writ petition, the cost per pilgrim of the Hajj package of 2024 (Hijri-1445) is extremely unreasonable and is beyond the reach of the common people.
It is said that in the gazette of the Religious Affairs Ministry, the house rent in Makkah and Madinah is fixed at one lakh 69 thousand 410 taka which is too much. It means that the government has fixed the house rent in favour of the house owners by cheating the pilgrims.
“The bus fare has been fixed at 36 thousand 834 taka in the gazette, which is very high. It is cheating on pilgrims. However, fixing the sale price of Zamzam water is very objectionable. No government can take financial advantage by selling this blessed water,” Advocate Ashraf-Uz-Zaman said in the writ petition.
Earlier on November 28, Advocate Ashraf-Uz-Zaman sent a legal notice to the authorities concerned, asking the government to reduce and re-fix the cost of the hajj package within Tk 4 lakh per pilgrim.
Now the cost for a pilgrim is Tk 5.78 lakh as a general package and Tk 9.36 lakh as a special package,
The lawyer sent the legal notice to the religious affairs ministry, saying that he would take necessary steps against the ministry if it failed to fix the hajj expense in five days.
Advocate Ashraf-Uz-Zaman said that the ministry on November 2 announced the hajj package which is very unreasonable and beyond the reach of general people.
The religious affairs ministry mentioned the airfare to be Tk 1,94,800 whereas the current fare is Tk 76,000 to 1,10,000 on the Bangladesh-Saudi-Bangladesh route.
Every year, both governments compel the pilgrims to purchase air tickets from Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi Airlines to give illegal benefits to these airlines, he said.
Advocate Ashraf-Uz-Zaman also said in the legal notice that the package has revealed that Bangladesh and Saudi Arabian governments are trying to earn huge amounts of money by provoking the pilgrims without maintaining Islamic spirit and morality.
