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

Following the ban imposed by the Sindh government in July 2025, banning collections of vehicle parking fees that also fell on deaf ears, a court of law in Hyderabad has directed the implementation of the ban.

The 1st additional district and session judge has ordered police to entertain complaints of the people against extortion of the illegal parking fee, with a direction to HMC for implementing the ban.

This was followed by a July 8, 2025 announcement by the Sindh government that no contractor would be allowed to collect parking fees on roads in the province, and all contracts to this effect stood cancelled. A month later, the HMC also notified that all charged parking contracts in the city stand 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 a man who forced him to pay a car parking fee in the Saddar area,which comes under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board of Hyderabad (CBH).

The lawyer said that he even took his complaint to the Cant police station, but cops refused to lodge the case, which compelled him to knock on the door of the concerned court for ordering an FIR. During the hearing, CBH's counsel Ishrat Ali Lohar had 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.

The court was also told that the CBH does not fall within the jurisdiction of the district administration of Hyderabad or under the local bodies. Advocate Zulfiqar Durrani, who appeared for the HMC, maintained that all parking contracts within the city were cancelled through the circular number G/230/2025 dated August 4, 2025.

"If any person is issuing receipts in the name of HMC, those are forged and action should be initiated against them in accordance with law," said the lawyer. Meanwhile, the court observed that CBH is being managed under the Cantonment Act, 1924, a federal act. "Thus the federal government is empowered to issue necessary directions to the