Pro-Commissionerate system: Hyderabad lawyer fights local govt ordinance 2001 in court
Petition argues that the Sindh Assembly rejected it.
HYDERABAD:
A lawyer in Hyderabad has decided to fight against the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.
On Tuesday, the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad bench heard his petition and issued notices to the federal and the provincial governments, whose representatives can either appear themselves or send a lawyer. On August 6, Governor Dr Ishrat-ul Ebad promulgated the Sindh Land Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance 2011, suspending a recently enacted law of the Sindh Assembly which introduced the commissionerate system as a form of local government.
This provoked a backlash initially from the Sindhi nationalist parties, who were joined in their chorus by the Awami National Party. Of late, a group of dissident MPAs of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, said to be influenced by the former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, also opposed the enactment of the ordinance into law.
“Any ordinance cannot override and overrule the sanctity of the Act passed by the Sindh Assembly,” the petitioner, advocate Mumtaz Lashari, contended. He argued that the Sindh Assembly repealed the 2001 local government system which implies that a majority of the elected representatives rejected the system.
He said he put forward 27 citations in support of his case. “After two hearing on September 29 and October 18, I finally [saw] the notices issued today,” he told The Express Tribune. He, however, added that he wanted a stay order issued against the existing local governments.
The federal government, Sindh chief secretary, secretaries of local government and law were named in the case. They have been summoned for October 30.
Justice Muhammad Tasleem and Justice Nisar Muhammad Shaikh heard the petition.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2011.
A lawyer in Hyderabad has decided to fight against the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.
On Tuesday, the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad bench heard his petition and issued notices to the federal and the provincial governments, whose representatives can either appear themselves or send a lawyer. On August 6, Governor Dr Ishrat-ul Ebad promulgated the Sindh Land Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance 2011, suspending a recently enacted law of the Sindh Assembly which introduced the commissionerate system as a form of local government.
This provoked a backlash initially from the Sindhi nationalist parties, who were joined in their chorus by the Awami National Party. Of late, a group of dissident MPAs of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, said to be influenced by the former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, also opposed the enactment of the ordinance into law.
“Any ordinance cannot override and overrule the sanctity of the Act passed by the Sindh Assembly,” the petitioner, advocate Mumtaz Lashari, contended. He argued that the Sindh Assembly repealed the 2001 local government system which implies that a majority of the elected representatives rejected the system.
He said he put forward 27 citations in support of his case. “After two hearing on September 29 and October 18, I finally [saw] the notices issued today,” he told The Express Tribune. He, however, added that he wanted a stay order issued against the existing local governments.
The federal government, Sindh chief secretary, secretaries of local government and law were named in the case. They have been summoned for October 30.
Justice Muhammad Tasleem and Justice Nisar Muhammad Shaikh heard the petition.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2011.