KARACHI, Aug 11: The Sindh High Court sought the assistance of three senior lawyers in adjudicating a writ petition against the parking fee imposed by the city district government.
The petitioners, two residential and commercial complexes of Clifton, submitted that their allottees, visitors and shoppers used to park their vehicles on the land situated in front of them.
The land did not belong to the city government but it had introduced charged parking there along with the imposition of parking fee on vehicles parked on roads and other public places.
They said that the government was providing no service to the vehicle owners or to traders or residents doing business or living in the complexes and the levy was unjustified.
Appearing for the respondent CDGK, Advocate Manzoor Ahmed submitted that the local government law and rules empowered it to impose the levy in the public interest and to generate revenue.
A division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Gulzar Ahmed, asked Advocates Naeemur Rehman, A. Hafeez Lakho and Sirajul Haq to assist the court as amici curiae as the matter involved public interest. It adjourned further hearing for a week.
PETITION DISMISSED: Another division bench, consisting of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and Khilji Arif Hussain, dismissed a writ petition challenging the cost of living allowance required to be paid to industrial workers under a provincial law.
The Employers Federation and two individual concerns submitted through Advocate Kamal Azfar that industrial relations were a federal subject and the federal government had promulgated an industrial relations ordinance to regulate them.
The workers were already receiving a cost of living allowance under terms of their appointment and mutual settlement reached by their collective bargaining agents with the managements.
The new allowance and the law that mandated it were violative of the fundamental rights to trade and property guaranteed by the Constitution and its Article 143, which declared that federal law shall prevail over provincial legislation.
Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada argued that the allowance was made payable under the Sindh Employees Special Allowance (Amendment) Ordinance, 1991, which amended a 1986 law for the benefit of the industrial labour. Its validity could not be assailed without questioning the validity of the parent law.
The CBA-management agreements were internal matter of the individual establishments, which the government was not concerned with. The provincial legislature enacted the law in view of the increase in cost of living.
An allowance of Rs 200 per month was required to be paid to every employee whose monthly wages did not exceed Rs 2,585. The provincial statute was not in conflict with the Constitution or any federal law, the AAG submitted. The bench dismissed the petition for detailed reasons to be recorded later.
ILLEGAL CONFINEMENT: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition against illegal confinement of an activist of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan as the petitioner's counsel withdrew it, adds PPI.
Ayesha Khatoon had challenged the detention of her son, Ahmed Zahoor, who was released by court on July 27 after incarceration of 10 years, by the law-enforcement agencies soon after his release outside jail. Her counsel Maqboolur Rehman informed court that the detainee had returned to home and he desires to withdraw the petition.