SHC seeks comments on petitions against amendments to LG law

The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the secretary of local government to appear and ensure that comments are filed on identical petitions against certain amendment to the local government law.

The direction came on petitions filed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami and others against certain amendments in the local government laws. A division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, also dismissed a request of the MQM counsel for recusal of both members of the bench as he had lost confidence in them.

The counsel for Jamaat-e- Islami however expressed confidence in the bench members and requested the court to proceed with the matter in accordance with the law. The provincial law officer submitted that he did not receive comments from the secretary of local government despite writing letters to him and sought further time to do so. The court observed that on the previous hearing the law officer was given the last chance to file comments.

The court directed the secretary to ensure that comments were filed with an advance copy to the counsel of the petitioner and adjourned the hearing till June 22. The petitioners said that the government had introduced certain amendments to the Local Government Act in contravention of Article 140-A of the constitution.

They said the provincial government had usurped several departments of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, including health, hospitals and education, in the garb of the new amendments in sheer violation of the constitution, which emphasised the devolution of powers to local governments.

They submitted that numerous vital functions relating to health and education had been withdrawn wholesale from the ambit of local governments without any rational or justification.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

They argued that the impugned amendments had unlawfully curtailed the election commission’s delimitation powers, saying that such restrictions were arbitrary and in violation of Article 140-A of the constitution.

They submitted that the amendments had inexplicably bound the elections 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 the fair local bodies elections.

They submitted that Karachi has a population of more than 30 million and needs a proper and empowered metropolitan corporation instead of a powerless city district government. The court was requested to declare amendments to 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 as unconstitutional.