ISLAMABAD: A petition has been filed with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against a decision of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) to auction the rights for collection of various local taxes and fees.

The petitioner contended that the civic body lacked the legal authority to outsource the recovery of such levies.

Advocate Faisal Mahmood filed the petition under Article 199 of the Constitution, making the federation of Pakistan, the chief commissioner, deputy commissioner Islamabad and the MCI as respondents.

The petition challenged the MCI’s auction advertisement issued on July 10, 2026, seeking to have it declared illegal, unconstitutional and without lawful authority.

It argued that the impugned advertisement a direct violation of a division bench judgement of IHC delivered on January 16, 2023, which, according to the petitioner, had already settled the legal position regarding the collection of local taxes and fees.

The petitioner submitted that MCI had no legal authority to auction the collection rights of board tax, professional licence fee and other local taxes without specific statutory backing. It maintained that Section 88 of the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act, 2015 provides the mandatory legal framework for the imposition and collection of taxes and fees, and any departure from the prescribed procedure is unlawful.

The petition contended that taxes and fees from the public must be recovered strictly in accordance with the law and cannot be outsourced through an auction process lacking statutory sanction.

The petition requested the court to declare the July 10, 2026, auction advertisement, along with all proceedings initiated pursuant to it, as null and void.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2026