KMC challenges SHC order against commercial use of parks in SC

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the parks director general challenged the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) judgment on the commercial use of public parks under public-private partnership agreements in the Supreme Court.

Filing an appeal against the SHC’s judgment, the KMC said the City Council acted in accordance with public purpose and caused regulation of the plots, which constitutes the corpus of the petition, for the public at large to access and enjoy.

The KMC mayor and the parks DG said that causing regulation of an amenity, which invariably serves a public purpose, and by charging a fee for such regulations is neither a commercial action nor causes the nature of the use of the amenity to change.

The petitioners said they have not created any permanent right of any nature whatsoever in the properties that are only to be allowed to be managed and developed by third parties pursuant to public-private partnerships, which have allowed development and maintenance of the properties.

They said that major portions of the properties are retained and maintained by the petitioners, and these are open to public access, use and enjoyment without any fee or charge. They requested the court to set aside the SHC’s order and allow the KMC to rent out parks on public-private partnership agreements, as the impugned judgment creates an anomaly and contradicts the SC’s judgment.

The SHC had declared that all the public-private partnership agreements that were entered into by the KMC on the basis of a City Council resolution were illegal and void.

The court had also declared that all the amenity plots that were rented out by the mayor and the parks DG on the basis of the same resolution were illegally rented out, as the decision was made in excess of the powers and functions of the KMC.

The SHC had made it clear that these amenity plots fall within the administrative authority of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), and all commercial use or conversion of amenity plots by the KMC is illegal.

The court said the amenity plots specifically designated for use such as that of amusement parks, public buildings and schools being put to use as playgrounds is in violation of Article 52A of the KDA Order, 1957, and thus illegal.