Commissioner system revival challenged in SHC | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Commissioner system revival challenged in SHC

KARACHI: The revival of the commissioner system in Sindh was challenged in the Sindh High Court on Saturday through two identical constitutional petitions filed by three civil society activists.

Advocate Qazi Khalid Ali filed the petitions on behalf of three petitioners – Aman newspaper editor Ajmal Dalhvi, former DJ College principal Prof Barrister Habibur Rehman and businessman Dr Arshad Abdullah Vohra – who impleaded the federal ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs and the chief secretary of Sindh as respondents.

They submitted that all political parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Pakistan People`s Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional), the Jamaat-i-Islami, the Awami National Party and others, had supported the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001 (SLGO 2001) in the past.

The local government system was successfully implemented not only in developed countries but also in Pakistan and particularly in Sindh in Karachi, they added.

They submitted that the SLGO 2001 had become more effective after incorporation of Article 140-A in the constitution of 1973 whereby each province shall by law establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative, financial responsibility and authority to elected representatives of the government.

They stated that under the commissioner system the province of Sindh consisted of five divisions – Sukkur, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Karachi and Larkana. The city of Karachi and all other divisions had come back to their old position with five districts in Karachi.

They said that after the 2001 local bodies elections, former president Pervez Musharraf ended the commissioner system through an ordinance and under the 17th amendment it was protected by the constitution.

The local governments, including the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), had done significant development work during 2005-2010 in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, etc, they added.

They said that Karachi must remain one district instead of being split into five districts because it was easy to control a single unit like New York in the United States which was bigger than Karachi but its affairs were controlled by a mayor.

They contended that the commissioner system was the legacy of British colonial rule which negated the spirit of democracy. Even the UK had given up this system. In London, which is a city bigger than Karachi, the British government had established the local government system through the London Local Government Act 1963 and all its affairs were handled by the lord mayor, they said.

The recently revived commissioner system would in no way be a substitute for the local government system in which people at grass-roots level were elected, they said. After the 18th amendment to the constitution it was expected that democracy would flourish, but the decision of the government had put paid to all such hopes, they said.

They said that the decision was taken by the Sindh chief secretary in a hurry by issuing notifications one after another without taking into consideration their far-reaching impact. Better changes could have been made to the system, but the respondents throttled it by imposing an undemocratic system which was designed during British rule, they added.

The impugned law was related not only to the political parties or Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas or urban areas of Sindh, but it was related to entire Sindh and the rest of country. While the structure of the local government system had been changed, no date for elections was announced, they said.

They stated that with the repeal of the SLGO 2001, all development work would come to a standstill and thousands of workers would be rendered jobless. It was a well-settled principle that good governance was impossible without consolidation of local bodies as a third tier of the constitutional government with all necessary administrative and financial powers, they added.

Advocate Qazi Khalid Ali said that the Sindh government amended the Sindh Land Revenue Act, 1967, for the revival of the commissioner system through Act VI of 2011.

He stated that the commissioners were responsible for revenue work although now its importance and weight did not seem to justify such highly paid officers. It was understood that the respondents were considering changes to the criminal procedure code, without which commissioners, deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners could not have magisterial/ judicial powers, he added.

The counsel stated that the impugned legislation was discriminatory and ultra vires to provisions of Articles 2-A, 4, 5, 9, 10, 10-A, 17, 25, 32, 70, 138, 140-A, 141, 142, 175, 270-AA of the constitution of 1973.

He prayed to the court to declare the revival of the commissioner system illegal and unconstitutional and urged the court to order revival of the local government system under the SLGO 2001.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/17/2011