SC grants Sindh AG time to seek instructions as it recommends provincial legislation

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing while maintaining the injunction against the high court decision to return the tax collected in the cantonment boards.

A five-member larger bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah heard the case. During the hearing, the court recommended provincial legislation on the matter, on which the Sindh advocate general pleaded for the adjournment of the case and said they should be given time to take instructions from the provincial government on the court's recommendation.

The court, after accepting the request of the provincial law officer, adjourned the hearing until April 22. The court, however, declared that the cantonment boards can collect taxes under the 1958 Act and the injunction against the decision of the Sindh High Court to refund the tax collected so far would remain intact.

Earlier, during the course of the hearing, the attorney general argued that a presidential order was issued in 1979 on the Property Tax Act of 1958, and through the Eighth Amendment, Zia-ul-Haq gave constitutional protection to this presidential order in 1985.

The AG submitted that even in 2010, the matter was not touched in the Eighteenth Amendment. He submitted that the collection of tax by cantonment boards is a federal, not a provincial subject.

On this occasion, Barrister Ayan Memon told the court that during 1988 in the Benazir Bhutto case, the Supreme Court held that the clauses that were protected under Article 270 of the constitution can be reviewed.

At this, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah asked as to why the Sindh government does not make this law a provincial matter by enacting legislation. The Sindh advocate general however sought time for taking instructions from the provincial government. The court, while giving time to the advocate general asked him to inform it after seeking instructions from the provincial government.