SHC seeks arguments from provincial government

Prosecutor requests court to declare the petition non-maintainable

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Tuesday the provincial government to present arguments on a plea to divide Sindh into seven provinces.

The Sindh government was directed by a two-judge bench to present arguments on the next hearing.

During Tuesday's proceedings, the Sindh government requested the court to excuse it for not filing comments.



A counsel for the government argued that the petition was non-maintainable. He informed the court that there was a law that governed creation of more provinces in the country. He maintained that even if Parliament and other provinces approved the division of a province with the two-third majority, the province could not be divided unless it itself approved its division.



After listening to the prosecutor's arguments, the bench adjourned the hearing till May 22, directing the government to present arguments on the next hearing.



It had been argued in the petition that the federal and provincial governments had failed in fulfilling their responsibilities. Sindh's condition cannot be improved under the current circumstances, the petitioner had maintained, requesting the SHC to order division of Sindh into seven autonomous provinces - Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Larkana and Jacobabad.

The petitioner claimed that no country in Europe and the Muslim world had any province that had a population of more than 50 million. He suggested that new autonomous states be given under the administrative control of the respective commissioners.