Sindh’s parking fee ban fails on ground, court orders action

Directs police to register complaints of citizens against illegal parking fee collection

HYDERABAD:

With the Sindh government's July 2025 ban on the collection of vehicle parking fees falling on deaf ears, a court of law in Hyderabad has directed the authorities to implement that ban.

The 1st additional district and session judge has directed the police to register complaints of the people against extortion of illegal parking fees while also ordering the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) to implement the ban.

On July 8, 2025, the Sindh government announced that no contractor would be allowed to charge parking fees on roads in the province and that all existing contracts in this regard were cancelled. A month later on August 4 the HMC also notified that all charged parking contracts in the city have been revoked except for 'designated plots, plazas and areas specifically maintained by councils for parking'.

However, such notifications, it appears, remained confined to the files as the citizens kept complaining about being extorted for parking fees in different parts of the city. One of the citizens, advocate Faisal Mughal, approached the court last month with a plea to order the registration of an FIR against an individual who forced him to pay a parking fee in the Saddar area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board of Hyderabad (CBH).

According to the lawyer, he even took his complaint to the Cant police station, but the cops refused to lodge the case, prompting him to knock on the door of the concerned court to order an FIR. At the hearing, the CBH's counsel, Ishrat Ali Lohar, opposed the jurisdiction of the court in the instant matter while also pointing out that Mughal did not approach the relevant forum, CBH's Cantonment Board Care (CBC), before coming to the court.

It was also pointed out to the court that the CBH does not fall under the jurisdiction of the district administration of Hyderabad or under the local bodies. Advocate Zulfiqar Durrani, who appeared on behalf of the HMC, claimed that all parking contracts in the city were cancelled through the circular number G/230/2025 dated August 4, 2025.

"... if someone is issuing receipts in the name of HMC, they are fake and legal action should be taken against them," the lawyer stated. Meanwhile, the court observed that the CBH is being run under the Cantonment Act, 1924, which is a federal law. "Thus, the federal government is empowered to issue necessary directions to the cantonment boards regarding the functions and collection of taxes," the judge underlined.

The judge, however, reminded the police that if the public approached them with complaints of illegal parking fee collection in the areas under HMC or under CBH, the police are duty-bound to investigate the matter and to take action if any illegality, which amounts to extortion, is unearthed. The court noted that the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, was prompted to notify a ban on charged parking in view of widespread public complaints in the province.

"The fruits given by the Sindh government and the CM should reach to the public," the judge stated, directing the HMC's municipal commissioner to monitor such illegal activities and to display the government's ban against parking fees in all concerned areas for the public's awareness. The court also ordered legal action against persons pretending to be contractors of HMC or of its Town Municipal Corporations.