MUZAMIL AKHT AR SHABIR, J.---Through this Constitutional petition, the petitioner has called in question letter dated 05.07.2017 issued by Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony , Government of Pakistan whereby travel restrictions for 3 and 5 years have been imposed upon the Pakistani 'Zairee n'/Pilgrims who intend to revisit Mausoleum of six prominent Muslim Saints in India.
2. The learned counsel for petitioner has challenged the afore-referred restriction as being violative of Articles 4, 9, 15, 20, 22 and 25, of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 "the Constitution". It has been argued that it is the fundamental right of the petitioner to travel to India and visit Holy Shrines/sites there and restriction imposed by the respondents is against the fundamental right of the petitioner which is liable to be struck down being ultra vires to the Constitution.
3. On the other hand, learned Assistant Attorney General appearing on behalf of Federation states that no restriction has been imposed upon any of the person in Pakistan to travel India on his own expense provided he has relevant travel documents. However , the Government of Pakistan provides limited subsidized facilities to the Pakistani zaireen to visit India for participation in the "Urs" celebrations of six prominent Muslim Saints in India and priority is given to first time zaireen and to accommodate them, the revisiting zairee n are allowed permission to visit India after some gap.
4. Heard, record perused.
5. The petitioner through the titled Constitutional petition has challenged travel restrictions placed upon Pakistani Zaireen to visit India for participation in the "Urs" celebrations of six prominent Muslim Saints in India by contending that petitioner is devoted follower of Hazrat Khawaja Allaudin Ali Ahmed Sabir (R.A.) whose "Urs" took place from 03.11.2017 to 07.12.2017 at Kaler Sharif (India) in which the petitioner participated and returned back to Pakistan.
Thereafter , when the petitioner again wanted to revisit there, he was informed that vide letter dated 05.07.2017 the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony , Government of Pakistan had imposed condition that any participants of the "Urs" within the previous three years would not be permitted to revisit India on official arrangements made by Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and in case any participant revisits during afore-referred three years, he would be prevented to visit India for participation in "Urs" for the next five years. The afore-referred condition is under challenge before this Court through the titled Constitutional petition.
6. It has been informed that Pakistani Zaireen are allowed facilities by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony to visit six prominent Muslim Saints in India as per following details:-- "Subject: AMENDMENT IN THE ZIARA T APPLICA TION FORM .
It is submitted that the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony facilitates the visit of Pakistani zaireen for their participation in the Urs celebrations of six prominent Muslim saints in India as per following detail:- Sr.
No,Name of Urs No, of ZaireenUrs held on (as per Islamic Calendar)
1. Hazart Mujaddid Alf Sant (R,4), Sarhand Sharif200 28 Sear
2. Hazrat Allauddin Ali Ahmad Sabir (R.A.)
Kalyar Sharif200 13 Rabi ul Awwal
3. Hazrat Hafiz Abdullah Shah (R.A.), Agra 150 4 Rabi ul Sant
4. Hazrat Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia (R.A.) Delhi250 16 Rabi ul Sani
5. Hazrat Khawaja Moin-uddin Chishti (R.A.) Ajmer Sharif500 6 Rajab
6. Hazrat Amir Khusro (R.A.) Delhi 200 18 Shawal
2. The Ziarat policy governing these visits is placed at Flag-A. One of the criteria of this Policy inter alia state as under:-- "Repeaters of one and half (1-1/2) year are not allowed to participate in Urs"
3. Previously the condition of repeating visit by Zaireen to attend the Urses in India was 12 months, which was first revised to 36 months and then to 18 months with the approval of then Federal Minster for Religious Affairs. It was also made part of the policy (Annex-I) that only those persons may be allowed to visit India, who produce their Medical Certificates duly issued by a Registered Medical practitioner showing that he is not physically disable and does not suffer from any contagious disease (Annex-I).
5. The visits of zaireen are generally smooth and the efforts of this Ministry have also been acknowledged by the Pakistan High Commission New Delhi as well as by the Zaireen. However , the Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi has reported that physically weak/ un-health, smugglers and people interested in other activities than 'Urs' also manage to travel to India in the garb of zaireen who not only create problem s for themselves and the whole touring party but also cause embarrassment for the country , (Annex-II). The Ministry of Interior has been requested to be more vigilant in clearing the zaireen from the security point of view . (Annex-III).
6. In order to ensure that only healthy zaireen may visit India and also to give opportunity to different zaireen, the following amendments are proposed in the application form:-- a. Provision of Medical fitness certificate, which is already part of the policy may be made part of the application form (new Form annexed) b. The minimum duration of 18 months between participation in the Urses may be increased to 03 years.
S/d (Niaz Muhammad Khan) Joint Secretary (D&Z)"
7. As per the Government Policy , the first visitors are encouraged and repeaters are not permitted to visit within three years of their previous visit. It has also been informed that Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi has reported that physically weak/un-health, smugglers and people interested in other activities than 'Urs' also manage to travel to India in the garb of zaireen who not only create problems for themselves and the whole touring party but also cause embarrassment for the coun try. The Ministry of Interior has been requested to be more vigilant in clearing the zaireen from the security point of view. It has further been proposed that in order to ensure that only healthy zaireen may visit India and also to give opportunity to different zaireen, the following amendments are proposed in the application form: (a) Provision of Medical Fitness Certificate, which is already part of the policy may be made part of the application form and (b) the minimum duration of 18 months between participation in the Urses may be increased to 03 years.
8. The afore-referred restrictions which have been placed upon travel of Zaireen of Pakistani under official arrangements to accommodate maximum number of zaireen in the limited permissible number fixed for visiting under the government supervision and are based on Policy Decision of the Government and this Court in its Constitutional jurisdiction is not competent to revisit the policy of the Government or set aside the same unless some illegality , arbitrariness or established mala fides or violation of any law is pointed out which is not forthcoming in the present case. Reliance in this regard is placed on Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination v. Major (R)
Ahmad Nadeem Sadal and other s (2014 CLC 600), Dossani Travels (Pvt.) Ltd. and others v. Messrs Travels Shopo (Pvt.) Ltd and others (PLD 2014 SC 1) and National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESP AK) (Pvt.)
Limited and others v. Kamil Khan Mumtaz and others (2018 SCMR 211). Even otherwise, the Policy fixing the number of zaireen has been framed by the Government of Pakistan in consultation with the Government of India and power to issue directions to a foreign government is not with the jurisdiction of this Court, consequently no direction could be issued to it to increase number of zaireen or fix conditions.
9. As regards the question of fundamental right of the petitioner to travel abroad and visit restriction imposed upon the petitioner is concerned, suffice it to observe that the petitioner cannot visit India within three years from the date of his last visit on government arrangements; however , there is no restriction upon the petitioner or any other person in Pakistan to travel India by seeking Visa through his own source. Thus, question of violation of fundamental rights does not arise. The learned counsel for petitioner states that travel through Ministry of Religious Affairs, Government of Pakistan is safe, therefore, restriction be set aside. Howe ver, this is not a ground to set aside the policy decision of the Government with regard to the afore-referred travel restriction which is based on reasonable classification. No ground to interfere in the policy decision of the Government in the given circumstances of the case, is made out.
10. Consequently , the titled Constitutional petition challenging the afore-referred letter dated 05.07.2017 is without any substance and is dismissed.