A.H.M. Fahim responds to United Hajj Union’s allegations

By Safna Malik

The Muslim Religious Affairs Minister’s Private Secretary A.H.M. Fahim last week responded to allegations of money laundering through hajj pilgrims and vends quota by accepting bribes that were made by United Hajj Union agencies to the Hajj Committee and Ministry of Muslim Religious Affairs on 24 June.

He said the Hajj Committee was formed under the patronage of the ministry and managed by Board Chairman Dr. Ziyad Thaha, as well as three top Sri Lankan lawyers namely Ilyas Admani, Shiraz Noordeen and S.M.M. Yaseen, Former Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Director Y.L.M. Navavi, All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama Additional Secretary Moulavi Thaseem and former Ministry of City Planning and Water Supply Additional Secretary Muinudeen Hanifa to maintain the system according to the law.

He said this Board of Directors was a list of high-profile members of society who are considered genuine individuals who are in charge of the Hajj Committee with the aim of rendering its services to the Muslim community without expecting any profits or advantages from the operators or hajis.  He asked that if the ministry or the Hajj committee actually intended to get money from pilgrims then why did the ministry appoint a panel of inquiry under the supervision of previously retired Judge Abdul Majeed. 

‘’If we want to make deals out of this holy tour why would we drive down the price and raise up the services when we can easily trade quotas for higher rates,” he added. 

Fahim said that the United Hajj Union which made the allegations was actually fake and was first of all neither an association nor a union since it had not been registered under the ministry. We challenge them to show us the registration of the association. We have only approved two associations – the All Ceylon Hajj Operators and Hajj Group Association.

"I appreciate the effort All Ceylon Hajj Organisation Vice President M.S.H. Mohamed took to set up a PET scanner for the cancer hospital but because he did one good thing for society, there isn’t an impact on the Muslim community if he is not being reliable.

The ministry has implemented the new system after the National Shoora Council, All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama and Young Men Muslim Association approved carrying out the latest structure,” he asserted.  Highlighting the reasons behind changing the policy system in 2015, he explained the guideline that was initiated by the Supreme Court in 2013. The ministry has closely examine the guidelines which specifically articulates a section. 

“The subject minister in power has control to change the rules and regulations according to the required needs of the system to function” so the ministry has looked into the guideline and brought key changes to the system such as selecting the operators, giving an opportunity to pilgrims to choose their own tour operators, providing EPF and ETF for the operators’ staff and Credit Information Bureau (CRIB) reports of the operators.”  The ministry’s previous administrators considered only one part of the guideline specifically on distributing the given quotas for the operators. 

“We only implement the policy which says that the hajjis that had been registered with the department should be given an opportunity to select their own operators according to their desire.”  

The ministry has added a few changes in registering operators to the system. Operators must provide a CRIB report to verify their financial reliability, a general test to analyse the knowledge of the operators on Hajj and Umrah, according to the marking scheme the quotas’ distributors to the operators and investigating whether employees of the operators have given EPF and ETF.

“We didn’t practise any injustice with the operators in marking all the quota distribution, whoever got marking to their level was equally given quota.”  

In Sri Lanka about 4,500-5,500 people are willing to go to hajj every year but visas are available only for 2,240 applicants.

He explained the faults of operators and how they treat the pilgrims and provide their services. The earlier system had caused much discomfort to pilgrims. 

‘’When a particular operator has a fixed quota of 50 and hajjis were treated in a bad manner they would be denied from travelling with the tour operator since other quotas were full and they were left without any choice. Most of the families like to go in groups but operators who have a quota of 10 would say they have only two slots available. The rest of the members would have to go separately. Such practical issues can be seen in the earlier Hajj tour system,’’ he added.

“According to Saudi rules, we have to provide licences for up to a minimum of 50 people for a bus therefore an operator should bring 50 individuals as a team. To maintain that we have to manage only 30 operators.” ‘’This year we got a quota of 3,000 from Saudi. Out of the 3,000 we are sending almost 2,850 hajis. The trade quota was completely a false statement, we can’t sell quotas. Also they claim 500 slots were received by staff. None of them is from the department or ministry. It was received by the operator’s staff.” 

Fahim went on to state: “The statement of sending quotas of around 5,400 to agencies is somewhat right. From December we have been sending letters to 6,250 but only 1,200 responded to the 6,250 letters. We were running out of time. The association is pushing to do it fast so we advertised in the media. Whoever registered with us up to December can come and pay an advance as a refundable deposit and confirm their willingness to attend Hajj. Whoever has been depositing the money and has registered here gets the receipt. And we tell them you are on the waiting list. This money doesn’t go to the minister’s account or hajj committee’s account or the director’s account. It goes to the Hajj Fund account.” 

He added that if they had provided the money without registration they could claim the money back.

“These two operators associations met with us and they requested us to charge a Rs. 50,000 refundable deposit. They have taken this refundable deposit last year. Also specifically this is not a charge. Registration is free and we take a refundable deposit to confirm their willingness to go.

“So we take this Rs. 25,000 as a refundable deposit. This refundable deposit is given to hajjis before they leave Sri Lanka. Before they proceed to the hajj it is refunded to them. Anyway, we keep 200 people on the waiting list. At the last minute a lot will get dropped due to financial problems in previous years. This system has helped people who are saving money for the Hajj,” he said.

“The guideline lists a minimum of 2,000 not a maximum of 2,000. When the administration is 2,000 we don’t have enough funds to run the Hajj and the currency variation, most of this is spent in Saudi for the hajj committee, so the administration fee, whether it is 4,000 or 10,000, goes to the hajj fund not to the ministry.”

Fahim revealed that the minister wanted to pursue fundamental defamation action against this statement’s purportedly false allegations.