Both the parties had filed separate petitions in the SHC challenging the SLGA, 2021. Taking the plea that the amendments were in violation of the various constitutional provisions, the petitioners sought implementation of the Supreme Court judgement handed down in February on the empowerment of local government system in Sindh.
When a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha took up the petitions for hearing, a provincial law officer sought further time to file comments on behalf of the provincial authorities. The court gave him the last chance to file comments and adjourned the hearing till April 28.
According to details, 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 They submitted that numerous vital functions relating to health and education had been withdrawn wholesale from the ambit of the local governments without any rational or justification.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.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) 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.