Govt to submit reply on SSWMB dissolution today

SHC granted advocate-general one day to reply to the mayor’s petition

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) granted on Wednesday one day to the provincial government to file its reply on the Karachi mayor's petition seeking dissolution of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) and the transfer of its powers to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, fixed the matter on Thursday (today).

At the outset of the hearing, the assistant advocate-general, Ghulam Mustafa Mahesar, informed the bench that the advocate-general, Barrister Zamir Ghumro, was busy before the Supreme Court at its Karachi Registry, therefore, could not submit reply. He sought time to enable the key government law officer file a reply to the arguments advanced by the petitioners' lawyer, Barrister Farogh Naseem.



Granting the request, the bench directed the AG to submit reply by Thursday (today).

On the last date, concluding his arguments, Barrister Naseem had argued that the Sindh government's act of not transferring the authority to manage solid waste to the KMC was a violation of Article 140 of the Constitution.

He had reiterated that the Supreme Court had clearly directed the government to transfer the functions of the SSWMB to the local government institutions but the respondent had failed to implement the order, despite the lapse of four months.

Barrister Naseem had argued that waste management and cleanliness are the responsibilities of local governments all over the world, but in Sindh this was not the case.



Opposing the plea, the provincial government has been insisting that the SC had just made an observation in its order and no directive was passed to hand over the solid waste management board to the KMC.

Later, it was informed that the Sindh government had approached the SC by filing a review application to seek clarification of the apex court's bench about its order to which the Karachi mayor was referring to seek dissolution of the SSWMB and its transfer to the KMC.

Case history

The mayor had filed a petition in the SHC in which he had maintained that the SSWMB was established under the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board Act, 2014, and was being run by the provincial government since its establishment.



The mayor had referred to an SC verdict, where the apex court had observed that the 'non-functional board [SSWMB] has never performed and should be dissolved to local bodies as provided under the rules of business'. He had contended that despite the directives of the SC, the relevant provincial authorities had not taken any step to transfer the functions of the board to the elected local representative bodies.

The mayor had pleaded to the court to direct the devolution of power and ask the authorities to transfer all the assets falling under the umbrella of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board Act, 2014, to the local government institutions.

He had further requested the SHC to direct the respondents to give complete details of all the funds, which they had received for the purpose of solid waste management, and to appoint a reputable auditor to audit the financial matters of the board.