KDA, DMC South fight over jurisdiction

Sindh High Court seeks details of fee collection from KMC

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has sought details of the amount collected by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) as fee from seven designated charged parking sites in District South.

A two-judge bench, comprising justices Nadeem Akhtar and Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui, sought these details by March 31.

The matter of collection of charged parking fee by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was taken up in court by District Municipal Corporation (DMC) South.

DMC South's director of charged parking, Tanveer Ahmed, had taken the provincial local government department's secretary and the directors of the charged parking departments of the KMC and KDA to the court.

The DMC's director said in a meeting of the KMC, KDA and DMC South officials, chaired by the Karachi mayor on January 4, it was decided that the KDA will recover the charged parking fee on the roads maintained by the authority. It was also decided that DMC South will collect such fee from the charged parking sites within its jurisdiction.

However, the official alleged that on January 7, KDA published advertisements in newspapers, inviting bids for the auction of the seven charged parking sites, which fell in the jurisdiction of DMC South.

These sites include Clifton Centre, Crystal Port Clifton, Empress Market, Paradise Centre, Sassi Arcade, Beach Park Clifton and behind Hyder Star shopping mall.

The petitioner argued that the KDA was auctioning the charged parking sites to collect fee from these sites in violation of Schedule-V, Part-II of Sub-Section XXII of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.

The official argued that the powers of the metropolitan corporations, DMCs and district councils are clearly defined in the act.

Under Section 296 of the act, powers to levy taxes and collect those taxes and parking fee is the right of the DMC, contended Ahmed, adding that no other agencies can interfere in the exercise of such powers.

The court was pleaded to declare that the act of the KDA or any other body of collecting parking fee from the seven designated charged parking sites falling within the limits of DMC South is illegal and a violation of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013. Therefore, the court was requested to restrain KDA from auctioning such sites and collecting parking fee.

During Wednesday's proceedings, Advocate Azra Muqeem appeared on behalf of the KMC and undertook to file comments by the next date.

"KMC is directed to file a detailed statement disclosing all the amounts collected by KMC with effect from January 1, 2017, till date on account of parking fee from the sites," the judges ordered. The hearing was fixed on March 31.