Orders police to register citizens’ complaints against illegal collection of parking fees
HYDERABAD:
As the ban imposed by the Sindh government in July 2025 on collection of vehicle parking fees fell on deaf ears, a Hyderabad court ordered authorities to implement the ban.
The first additional district and session judge directed the police to register complaints of people against extortion for illegal parking fees and also directed the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) to implement the ban.
On 8 July 2025, the Sindh government announced that no contractor would be allowed to charge parking fees on the roads of 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 A month later, on August 4, the HMC also notified that all charged parking contracts in the city had been revoked, except for “specifically designated plots, squares and areas maintained by councils for parking”.
However, such notifications were apparently confined to the files, as citizens continued to complain of being extorted to pay parking fees in different parts of the city. One of the citizens, advocate Faisal Mughal, approached the court last month with a petition seeking to order registration of an FIR against an individual who forced him to pay parking fee in Saddar area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Hyderabad Cantonment Board (CBH).
According to the lawyer, he even took his complaint to the Cant police station, but the police refused to file the case, prompting him to knock on the door of the court concerned to order an FIR. In the hearing, CBH’s lawyer Ishrat Ali Lohar objected to the court’s jurisdiction in the present matter and also pointed out that Mughal did not approach the relevant forum, CBH’s Cantonment Board Care (CBC), before approaching the court.
It was also pointed out to the court that the CBH is not under the jurisdiction of the Hyderabad district administration or local bodies. Advocate Zulfiqar Durrani, appearing for the HMC, submitted that all parking contracts in the city were canceled through circular number G/230/2025 dated August 4, 2025.
“…if anyone is issuing receipts in the name of HMC, they are fake and legal action should be taken against them,” the lawyer said. Meanwhile, the court observed that the CBH is governed under the Cantonment Act, 1924, which is a federal law. “Thus, the federal government is empowered to give necessary instructions to the cantonment boards regarding the functions and collection of taxes,” the judge stressed.
The judge, however, reminded the police that if the public approached them with complaints of illegal collection of parking fees in the areas under HMC or under CBH, the police have a duty to investigate the matter and take action if any illegality amounting to extortion is discovered. The court noted that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was forced to notify the ban on chargeable parking in view of widespread public complaints in the province.
“The fruits brought by the Sindh government and the CM should reach the public,” the judge said, directing the HMC municipal commissioner to monitor such illegal activities and display the government’s ban on imposing parking charges in all affected areas to create public awareness. The court also ordered legal action against persons posing as contractors of HMC or its Municipal Corporations.
