Ban on shisha: Restaurant owners challenge DHA, CBC raids

Association accuses authorities of 'illegal' raids, harrassment

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has fixed on September 20 a petition questioning the authority of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) to raid cafes and restaurants offering shisha. It has also questioned the maintainability of such a petition.

Headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, the two-judge bench also called para-wise comments from the CBC, explaining the rationale behind the raids allegedly being carried out without any lawful authority.

The petition was filed by the All Pakistan Café and Restaurants Association against the government's ban on shisha smoking in restaurants and cafés.



The association said, in implementation of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002, the local administration 'unlawfully' prohibited serving shisha in open places catering solely to smokers, which meant that such spaces did not fall under the definition of a space or place of work mentioned in section two of the ordinance.

The association said the home department's order imposed a ban on serving shisha under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This has allowed and handed a carte blanche to the official respondents, including the police and local administration, to harass, intimidate and to infringe upon the rights of the petitioners.

Therefore, the association pleaded to the court to restrain the provincial, DHA and CBC authorities from enforcing a ban on serving non-tobacco shisha in restaurants and cafés and declare the provincial government's order ultra vires.

During the last hearing, the judges had asked the association's lawyer to satisfy the court about the petition's maintainability, since it had been filed to challenge the action of officials in respect of the Supreme Court's (SC) order on November 5, 2015 in a suo motu case.

During Friday's proceedings, advocate Abdullah Azam filed a statement on behalf of the association along with various orders passed by the SC in suo motu proceedings against shisha smoking. He said the proceedings are still pending before the SC.



The court's office also received an order issued by the SC to all the high courts in suo motu proceedings, asking them to proceed with constitutional petitions on the issue that may be pending and decide the same in accordance with the law.

Advocate Abdullah Munshi for CBC requested for time to file para-wise comments. The two-judges observed that principally the matter pertained to Sindh but found the provincial law officer absent during the hearing.

Therefore, the bench fixed September 20 to take up the matter of maintainability of the petition along with the merits of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2016.