Cattle farmers approach SHC against ‘excessive charging’ for issuing animal health certificates

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Gadap Town and others on a petition against illegal collection of health fees for animals.

The Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association office-bearers had submitted in a petition that the town administration of Gadap and Ibrahim Hyderi was illegally charging exorbitant fees for animals.

The petitioner’s counsel, Usman Farooq, submitted that neither any vaccination nor spray were being provided to them and the respondents also did not have the lawful authority to charge such amount under the Animal (registration, sale and control) by-laws 2007 as such authority was now vested in the KMC.

He said that animals for dairy or meet purposes came from different parts of the country and the KMC veterinaries department had the jurisdiction to inspect those animals as they entered the city and charge Rs50 per animal for issuing their health certificate.

The counsel said that some of the local government functionaries had fraudulently been charging Rs600 instead of Rs50 without providing any health certificate.

The SHC was requested to direct the KMC to collect Rs50 per animal and issue health certificates, and stop the collection of Rs600 per animal.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Acting Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi after the preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the KMC, Gadap Town and others and called their comments on January 17.

Demolition ordered

Meanwhile, the SHC directed the Sindh Building Control Authority to demolish an unauthorised construction on a multi-storey buildings complex on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road.

Hearing a petition against the construction of unauthorised floors at Chappal garden, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar took exception to the authorities’ failure to comply with the court orders.

The SBCA deputy director submitted that there were 70 illegal rooms and small houses constructed on rooftop of the project having 780 flats. He submitted that the SBCA team took action against illegal construction where 26 illegal houses were demolished on the rooftop of the building.

He said that there was a lot of resistance from the residents during the action and they faced shortage of police force. He undertook that the remaining unauthorised construction would be demolished within one month.

The high court directed the East deputy commissioner and SSP concerned to ensure compliance of the court order and submit a report on January 15.