As the Supreme Court examines the corrupt practices freely committed by government functionaries during the last Haj, the different forms they took are coming to light. One aspect that attracted the courts attention during the hearing of the Haj scam case on Friday was the performance of this sacred religious duty at state expense, which led it to order the recovery, within a week, of all expenses from those persons who had availed of this facility. In a society that reeks of favouritism and deceitful ways, religious matters included, one would be justified smelling a rat even in the story of sending people on Haj free of charge. The beneficiaries of the free trip were politicians and journalists, whom the government obviously wanted to oblige, though, perhaps, none of them was short of funds that could have prevented him from undertaking the journey without outside help. However, one would hope that if there were some who could not foot the bill and yet cherished great desire to go to Haj, the court would not insist on effecting recovery from them. The Secretary of Religious affairs was also asked to prepare a list of all those who had performed Haj at public expense during the past 10 years. And an important question that came up during the hearing was whether the Interior Ministry, which was supposed to have borne the expense, was authorised to do so. As it turned out, there were wheels within wheels, and two private individuals, Malik Riaz of Bahria Town and Haji Nawaz Khokhar, had donated Rs 5.5 million and Rs 5 million respectively for those performing free Haj. That raises the question, as Justice Raja Fayyaz remarked, that if the state took money from an individual, he would in return look for some kind of a favour from it. Thus, the FIA was directed to investigate on whose orders these two persons had given the money. Similarly, the probes revelation that 95 percent of Khuddam-ul Hujjaj belonged to the constituency of former Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi, raised eyebrows, and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry wanted to know what role they had performed. The court directed the FIA to launch criminal cases against officials of the Religious Affairs and Interior Ministries who had flouted rules and regulations in sending persons free of cost and also those who had been involved in the Haj scandal case in general. It is a reflection of the degradation of moral values in society that even poor Haj pilgrims who could have spent a lifetime saving money to be able to perform this coveted religious duty have not been spared by cheats and thugs. They must be brought to book and shown no quarter.