KARACHI - The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday rejected plea seeking division of the province within seven states.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh has dismissed the petition on non-maintainability ground. The court observed that establishing of new states is the responsibility of the parliament not the courts.
“Punjabi is the second biggest spoken language in Canada and it has six Sikhs ministers, but so far no Punjab state was established in Canada,” said Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh in his remarks.
He inquired that which clause of the constitution suggests establishing new states or provinces.
The court disposed of the petition after hearing the final arguments from both the sides. The court has observed that the plaintiff failed to prove his plea.
The petition was filed by Azmat Wali, a citizen seeking to divide Sindh in seven provinces, by submitting that current system of governance does not provide an atmosphere for improvement. He pleaded the court to issue direction to the federal and provincial government to divide Sindh into seven autonomous states, Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Larkana, Sukkur and Jacobabad.
The provincial government through its counsel had submitted that the petition is not maintainable. The government’s counsel had submitted that if the parliament also passes legislation with 2/3 majority, it cannot make more provinces without the consent of the province.
The petitioner submitted that in all the European and Muslim countries including the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, United Arab Emirate, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey, the population of any province is not more than 50 million.
He continued that Pakistan is a rich country and its all provinces have the potential of becoming an independent state, adding that the leadership of the country never worked for its development by not devolving the powers at a lower level. “Sindh is also a rich province but so-called Waderas, Mirs, Nawabs, Makhdooms and Pirs always held the neck of the poor Sindhis.
The influential people never allowed the establishment of schools, colleges, universities, institutes for technical and science education as they do not want to see poor Sindhis educated and developed.
The petitioner pleaded the court to issue direction to the provincial and the federal government for the legislation to establish more states in Sindh.