November 21, 2006	Tuesday	Shawwal 28, 1427

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HYDERABAD, Nov 20: The Hyderabad Circuit bench of Sindh High Court on Monday has issued pre-admission notices to the federal government through the cabinet secretary and the Sindh government through chief secretary on a constitutional petition, jointly filed by Dr. Nazir Ahmed Sheikh and Shamim Iqbal Soomro, challenging formation of a coordination committee headed by Sindh Governor and empowering him to frame policies about Karachi.

The petitioners, who belong to the Sindh Democratic Forum (SDF) are represented by Yousuf Leghari. They said it was strange that except for Sindh, other provinces had governors who had no party affiliation. Sindh, they said, was governed by a person who had remained in exile and obtained asylum in a foreign country, giving up the citizenship of Pakistan. They said that he was the only governor who belonged to a political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The Federation of Pakistan, through cabinet secretary, the province of Sindh through chief secretary and the chief secretary of Sindh secretariat are cited as respondents.

The petitioners said that through a notification issued on October 14, by the chief secretary, a coordination committee headed by the Governor of Sindh had been formed to frame policies in respect of development of mega city Karachi and did not include the rest of the province.

They said that the notification was in violation of the Constitution and would lead to bad governance. They said it usurped powers of elected representatives of the people and the rights of the people of Pakistan in general and individual rights of petitioners in particular.

They argued that the impugned notification was in violation of principles and spirit of the federation and issued only to please one particular section of people and, therefore, was discriminatory whereby one section of people in Sindh was being governed by a representative government, headed by the chief minister and the other section by the governor and the party of his affiliation in violation of the Constitution.

They termed the notification a violation of Article 90 of the Constitution whereby the authority of federation vested in president, but in the present case it was issued by the chief secretary without citing the authority of president and, therefore, it was unlawful.

Citing the terms of reference of the coordination committee, they said, it was to provide guidance and input for a coherent master plan of the city, monitor its implementation by all agencies, coordinate and bring about uniformity in building control codes and land use policies in Karachi by the DHA, KPT, SITE, Cantonments, etc.

They said Karachi was getting a preferential treatment over the rest of Sindh, because all cities had turned into dumps of dust and filth and their need for master plans and building codes was equally important; and it was a discriminatory act and militated against Article 25 of the Constitution. About another point in the terms of reference, they said, it read “to identify and analyse critical administrative obstruction of foreign and local investment.”