The decision of the Lahore High Court declaring the Haj quota allocated to private Haj operators by the Religious Affairs Ministry as illegal is a step in the right direction. It has ordered the Ministry to select new operators on merit and in strict compliance with rules and transparency. The decision comes in response to a petition filed against the Ministry that it had given quotas against merit and under political pressure. The judiciary is effectively playing a watchdog role to keep the executive under check. Preventing corruption and ensuring transparency in carrying out Haj operations ought to have been among the most important tasks of the executive. But its failure to perform this essential function has forced the judiciary to step in and fix the anomalies in the system. In other words, the judiciary has to perform the dual assignment of ensuring justice, but also keep an eye on the executive to prevent it from indulging in corrupt ways. It bears pointing out that it was partly because of governments flawed Haj policy including the allocation of quota to private operators on favouritism and political grounds as transpired in the LHCs proceedings that the poor Hajis were fleeced in broad daylight. Even after paying extra money, they could not get hotel accommodations within the stipulated distance near the sites of worship. This was, to all intents and purposes, a cruel act on the part of the Haj operators as well as the Religious Affairs Ministry. It tended to show that corruption has becomes institutionalised. Although we have seen that some culprits of the last years Haj scam have been thrown behind bars, the Ministry, it seems, remained unfazed and had it not been for the court, it would have once again taken the public for a ride by exploiting the loopholes in the new Haj policy and given contracts to its favourite tour operators.