ISLAMABAD: A division bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended a single bench verdict that had ordered the complete dissolution of the CDA.

The division bench, comprising Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir and Justice Rana Inaam Ameen Minhas, took up an intra-court appeal filed against the ruling of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who had earlier declared the CDA defunct and directed that all its functions, powers and assets be transferred to the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).

During Monday’s hearing, Advocate Kashif Ali Malik appeared on behalf of the CDA. The court inquired about the original petition that led to Justice Kayani’s sweeping order, asking, “What was the plea in the case where the order to dissolve the CDA was issued?”

The counsel for the parties explained that the petition had merely sought abolition of the “Right of Way (ROW)” charges imposed by the CDA on fuel stations and other commercial entities along major roads. “Our application did not seek dissolution of the CDA,” they clarified.

The bench then questioned, “Will you defend the single bench’s decision to dissolve the Authority?” To this, the counsel responded, “Neither was our plea to dissolve the CDA, nor will we defend such an order.”

After hearing the arguments, the division bench suspended the single bench’s order relating to both the dissolution of the CDA and the directions for local government elections, restoring the authority’s operations until the final decision on the appeal.

Justice Kayani had delivered a decision that not only struck down SRO No 576(I)/2015, which imposed ROW charges on housing societies, fuel stations and businesses accessing main roads, but also directed the complete dissolution of the 65-year-old CDA, terming it an “obsolete institution” that had “lost its operative relevance”.

The court had held that the ICT Local Government Act 2015 implicitly repealed Section 15-A of the CDA Ordinance 1960, which had empowered the civic agency to perform municipal functions.

Justice Kayani had ruled that after the 2015 law came into effect, all municipal, regulatory and taxation powers stood transferred to the MCI, an elected local body.

“The ICT Local Government Act, being a special and later law, implicitly repealed CDA’s municipal powers,” the judgement had observed. “The two frameworks cannot stand together.”

The single bench found that the CDA’s imposition of ROW charges lacked constitutional and statutory authority, declaring the levy “illegal, ultra vires, and without lawful authority.” Justice Kayani wrote that taxation powers were constitutionally vested in parliament and devolved local governments, not in unelected regulatory bodies.

He had observed that the CDA had no jurisdiction to impose or collect such charges after 2015, and any such taxation violated Articles 23, 24, 77, and 140-A of the Constitution — provisions protecting property rights and mandating financial authority to rest with elected representatives.

The court had also directed that all ROW charges collected since 2015 under the illegal SRO be refunded to affected entities. Furthermore, it ordered the Auditor General of Pakistan to audit the CDA’s accounts and ensure transfer of municipal revenues to the MCI.

Justice Kayani’s order also instructed the federal government to begin proceedings under Section 52 of the CDA Ordinance 1960 to formally dissolve the civic agency and transfer its “powers, assets and functions” to the MCI.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025