Hold the berserk bull by the horn

As the latest Recorder news report on this grave issue has pointed out, the Sindh Government has apparently become so powerless before Site Town Municipal Administration (TMA), Karachi, as to find itself incapable of resolving the crisis sparked last month by the latter's undiminished craving for trade licence fee from Site Industrial Area industrialists, who have been agitating against the hammering outburst of notices from the Town Office.
However, instead of laying down, most of them have challenged TMA's right to the outrageous demand, with added threat of penal action against non-compliance. Needless to point out, were it not for the astute, principle-based leadership of Engr M A Jabbar, Chairman of Site Association of Industry (SAI), TMA would have succeeded in getting away with unlawful gains from its unorthodox campaign it launched with the tactics of no holds barred, as in free-style wrestling.
Earlier, in March, Town Nazim, TMA, Site Town, in a letter to City Nazim had informed him that it intended to lodge FIRs against the defaulters of Trade Licence fee as all the notices served on them remained futile, quoting the section that made it mandatory to report such offences to the officer in-charge of concerned police station.
At the same time, he had also stated that TMA was collecting the trade licence fee on behalf of City District Government Karachi (CDGK), and that its proceeds were deposited in the account of CDGK by the traders against bank challans issued by TMA, pointing out that 80 percent of the amount went to TMA while 20 percent remains with CDGK.
It was contended that due to non-payment of the said fee, "we are losing a huge amount of our earning...and have just formed a plan to lodge FIRs against the defaulters." As against this, according to SAI chief, Engr M A Jabbar, who has been vigorously pursuing the matter, in a letter in which he had brought the matter to the notice of Sindh Chief Minister, and which was forwarded by his Special Assistant to the Chief Secretary, directing him to look into the matter personally and to take immediate necessary action within seven days.
Significantly, in his letter he had also stated that arrest warrants had been issued; cases registered; and the matter referred to Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate, District West, and also that the said notices issued lacked any legal basis and that the whole exercise was "only an instrument of forcing informal cost compliance." He had also recalled that the Industries Secretary in a tripartite meeting with SAI and Town Municipal Officer (TMO) Site Town had said that the situation of industries in the Site area did not attract the provisions of SLGO, noting that since Site Ltd provides all the municipal services, TMA may not claim any fees or ask the industries to get trade licence from Site Town TMA.
Again, as he argued, industries are allowed trade, business and manufacturing by the provincial government for which licence to conduct businesses are allowed against annual tax in the name of professional tax, which continues to increase with the increase in the paid-up value of the capital in the company. As he further put it, if the Site Town TMA wanted similar fees or duplication, it would better refer to the Local Bodies Commission through CDGK to seek share under the Sindh Finance Commission disbursements.
Viewed in the perspective of the situation developing in the wake of the abhorring TMA initiative, it will appear that seemingly inebriated by the much-trumpeted devolution of authority, to which this body owes its creation, it has lately gone berserk like the proverbial bull in china shop.
For, notwithstanding, the appeals for restraint from the responsible quarters, since the inception of the crisis, there has been no let-up in TMA's unorthodox campaign. What's more, it has taken even multinational companies into its stride.
For one, reference may be made to the notice lately issued to a subsidiary of a reputed pharmaceutical firm of Germany, stating that as it is carrying out the trade of manufacturing medicines since July 2001, a licence is required under the provisions of Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.
Reportedly, alleging that it had been carrying on the trade without obtaining a licence, it was asked to call on the Town Officer, at his office, within seven days from the date of receipt of the notice and to obtain a licence against payment of the prescribed fee, failing which the Town Administration would be constrained to refer the matter to the Station House Officer (SHO) of the concerned police station for registration of FIR.
The company, whose presence in Pakistan has been traced to more than 40 years, comprises three companies, covering three major pharmaceutical/therapeutical areas, besides another business unit, dealing with chemicals and diagnostic products and services. What's more, a separate note in Urdu, issued on the order of Town Officer, carried the warning that in case they don't deposit the money and copy of trade licence within seven days their electricity and gas would be disconnected.
All in all, it will appear that in its bid to accumulate ill-gotten money it can go to any length, even to the extent of scaring foreign investors of repute away from the country, at a time the government is desperately trying to attract increasing foreign investment. Enough is enough, and the time will appear to have come to hold the berserk bull by the horn, before it causes the nation irretrievable harm.