JI challenges amendments to Sindh’s LG law

KARACHI: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Karachi on Monday challenged in the Sindh High Court the certain amendments to the local government law introduced by the Sindh government.

JI Karachi’s Amir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, in which he submitted that the Sindh government introduced certain amendments to the local bodies act, which was contrary to the Article 140-A of the Constitution.

He further submitted that the provincial government usurped several departments of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), including health, hospitals and education under the garb of the new amendments, which is a sheer violation of the Constitution that emphasises the devaluation of power.

Karachi is home to about 30 million population and thus needs an empowered metropolitan corporation instead of powerless city district government, the petitioner submitted.

The provincial government has maintained the erosive policy of increasing centralisation of municipal functions to the sheer detriment of the local government as well as the citizenry, he submitted. He submitted that the crucial power of revenue generation has also been held back from the local government, resulting in its weakness.

The petitioner requested the court to declare the impugned amendments to Sindh’s local government law unconstitutional and restrain the government from implementing the amendments as these make the local government dysfunctional.