SHC gives last chance to Sindh govt to file comments on pleas against new LG law

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed a provincial law officer to file comments on identical petitions against certain amendments in the local government law.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami and others had submitted in their petitions that the Sindh government had introduced certain amendments in the local government law in contravention of the Article 140-A of the Constitution.

They argued that the provincial government had usurped several departments of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), including health, hospitals and education, under the new amendments in sheer violation of the constitution, which stipulated devolution of powers to the local governments.

They submitted that numerous vital functions relating to health and education had been withdrawn wholesale from the ambit of the local governments without any rational or justification.

They said the withdrawal of medical colleges and teaching hospitals from the KMC’s management was a key example of the patently arbitrary and mala fide nature of the amendments made to the law.

The petitioners argued that the impugned amendments had unlawfully curtailed the Election Commission’s delimitation powers, saying that such restrictions were arbitrary and in violation of the Article 140-A.

They submitted that the amendments had inexplicably bound the Election Commission to conform to a delimitation exercise carried out more than six years ago, which preceded even the latest census conducted in 2017. They said the only conceivable motive for such a restriction appeared to be in pursuance of gerrymandering or some other scheme designed to distort the process of fair local bodies elections.

They submitted that Karachi had a population of more than 30 million and needed a proper and empowered metropolitan corporation instead of a powerless city district government. The high court was requested to declare amendments to the sections 14 (I)(a) 14 (3)(b) and (c), 14(III)(d)(I) to (III) and 17 (a) (b) of the Sindh Local Government Amendments Act to be unconstitutional.

An assistant advocate general Sindh sought further time to file comments on the petitions. A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha gave the last chance to the provincial government and directed the law officer to file comments on the petition by April 28.