SHC orders action against illegal parking fee collectors

The Sindh High Court has ordered action against persons involved in collecting illegal parking fees from citizens in Karachi.

Hearing a petition against illegal charged parking in different areas of the city, a high court division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, took exception to the collection of illegal parking fees in different parts of the metropolis.

The court observed that persons collecting charged parking fees usually misbehaved themselves if families did not pay the fee, but neither the police nor the traffic police took action to stop the practice of collection of illegal parking fees.

The bench inquired the counsel for the DMCs whether any notification had been issued with regard to fixing parking fees. The counsel quoted Section 96 of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013, which authorises the councils to collect the fee on account of parking; however, none of the counsel were able to show the court any notification whereby the rates of parking fees had been fixed or areas designated for this purpose.

The counsel sought time to assist the court in dealing with the issue. The court directed the counsel to submit the relevant documents showing the process of tendering parking fees or if the KMC or a council was collecting the fees itself.

It observed that if tendering was done to award contract for parking fees to contractors, the papers relating to the produced would be produced before it.

The provincial law officer submitted that the authorities concerned would initiate a drive to curb the illegal collection of parking fees in areas which were not designated. The court directed the law officer to take action against persons involved in illegally taking parking fees and to submit a compliance report by January 31.

Petitioner Khursheed Ahmed Khan had moved the court for taking action against persons collecting parking fees in violation of the Supreme Court’s (SC) orders in this regard. He had maintained that the SC had issued clear directions on the issue, but private contractors were collecting parking fees on different roads of the city.

He requested the high court to direct the National Accountability Bureau to conduct an inquiry into the collection of parking fees by private contractors, and recover the money collected in the past several years.

Earlier, another bench of the SHC had restrained the cantonment boards in the city or any other authority thereunder from collecting parking fees in their jurisdictions until further orders.