HYDERABAD, Oct 25: Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court issued notices on Tuesday to the chief secretary and the secretaries of local government and law for Nov 30 on a petition against the Sindh Local Government Ordinance of 2001.

The petition has been filed by Mumtaz Lashari, who is appearing in person to argue it. According to his case, the SLGO-2001 was restored after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan People’s Party agreed on a joint formula to restore it in Karachi and Hyderabad on Aug 7 and then it was restored in entire Sindh.

He argued in the petition that the ordinance was illegal in presence of an act passed by the majority in Sindh Assembly. Any ordinance could not override and overrule sanctity of an act passed by the Sindh Assembly, Mumtaz Lashari said.

The SLGO 2001 had already been repealed by Sindh Assembly on July 14, but it had been promulgated without any justification in presence of the act that had not been repealed yet, he said, adding that the ordinance was in violation of Article 2-A, 25, 4, 14, 8, 5 of the Constitution.

He said the ordinance had no sanctity as similar laws had been rejected by a majority in all three provinces.

He said the local government ordinances of 2001 were lawfully repealed by Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhaw and Balochistan Assemblies before the SLGO was passed by Sindh Assembly.

Till the ordinance was passed by Sindh Assembly, the notification passed for appointment of the district coordination officers (DCOs) was not valid in the eyes of law. Therefore, it was liable to be set aside, Mr Lashari contended.

The original meaning of an ordinance was law or rule promulgated for an emergency, but at the time of the promulgation of the said ordinance, there was no state of emergency. Hence the ordinance was illegal, he said.

He said that notification for appointment and delegation of powers of commissioners to DCOs was illegal. He requested the court to suspend operation of the ordinance and restrain respondents from implementing it.