HYDERABAD, April 5: The Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, has issued notices to the Hyderabad DCO, city taluka nazim and M/S Jamiluddin, on a constitutional petition filed by a bus owner that challenges levy of parking fee on buses halted for short periods at various places in the city. The court, through the notices issued here on Monday, called for the comments of the respondents on April 21.

In his petition, Ahmed Shah said that he plied his bus on the Husri route as per schedule of the Regional Transport Authority that was passed by the Provincial Transport Authority with consent of the respondents in a meeting with bus owners.

The respondent taluka nazim, without any legal authority, approved a parking fee contract for 2004-05 through a letter dated October 25, 2004, which was addressed to the city and Phulleli TPOs, as well as, the DPO and union council nazims of the city taluka, he claimed.

He represented those bus owners who plied their buses on the Husri route, he said, adding that the buses were not parked anywhere other than the Husri stand; however, the taluka nazim, in connivance with M/S Jamiluddin, wanted to collect illegal parking fee forcibly from them.

He prayed the court to declare the order illegal and unlawful, and restrain the respondents from recovering the illegal parking fee.

ARRESTS: Officials of the anti-corruption establishment, Thatta, have arrested a tapedar, Mohammad Haneef Memon, and a stamp vendor, Ghulam Hussain, for allegedly transferring 500 acres of government land in the name of private parties.

The officials claimed that ACE deputy director Ali Ahmed Junejo had received information that the tapedar, in connivance with other persons, had converted government land worth millions of rupees in the name of private persons by entering fake documents in the revenue record.