Cantonment board can’t collect parking fee without legislation: SHC

The Sindh High Court observed on Friday that the parking fee could not be charged by the Karachi Cantonment Board without proper and formal legislation, and restrained the board from collecting the fee at its eight specified locations.

The order came during a hearing of a petition of the Sea Breeze Plaza Residents Welfare Association challenging the collection of the parking fee at the specified locations.

Salahuddin Gandapur and Sabir Shah submitted in the petition that the Karachi Cantonment Board (KCB) awarded a contract to a private contractor to charge motorists the parking fee at eight locations in its jurisdiction. 

According to the authority letter, the contractor was authorised to collect the fee on Sarwar Shaheed Road, Sabir Baig Shaheed Road, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan Road, Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Road, Saghir Hussain Shaheed Road, Kiayani Shaheed Road, Sharea Faisal (from Faisal Bank to Dadabhoy Centre) and Abbasi Shaheed Road.

The petitioners’ counsel contended that the KCB had no authority to charge or collect the parking fee in view of the law laid down by the court in which it was held that the fee could not be levied by any governmental agency without an appropriate legislative authority, and since there was no provision in the Cantonment Act, 1924, empowering the board to charge the parking fee, collecting the parking fee was without lawful authority. He noted that a high court decision in this respect was upheld by the Supreme Court.

A high court division bench, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, observed that as it had already been held by the court that the parking fee could not be charged by the cantonment board without proper and formal legislation, no such fee could be charged at any of the eight specified locations.

It issued notices to the KCB, the deputy attorney general and other respondents for November 15 and restrained the cantonment board from taking the parking fee from any amount from motorists.