KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday took serious exception over the absence of some lawyers for petitioners challenging the Sindh Charities Registration and Regulation Act and said that the matter had been dragged on over non-appearance of counsel.

The SHC said that its earlier interim orders restraining respondents not to take adverse action against the petitioners would automatically stand vacated if their lawyers not ensure their presence on May 23.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha also issued direct intimation notices again to the federal and provincial law officers to assist it at next hearing since apparently vires of certain sections of the act vis-à-vis the Constitution had been challenged.

On the last hearing, the bench had set out essential legal issues involved in the matter, including capacity of province to legislate about inter-provincial issues, whether vires of certain sections of impugned law and policies made thereunder as well as separate polices framed by federal government are ultra-vires of the Constitution, and various potential violations of Article 17 and 18 about right of freedom of association and trade.

Court extends stay order till May 23

When the bench took up over 15 identical petitions for hearing on Tuesday, four lawyers representing some of the petitioners were found absent.

The bench said that direct intimation notices be issued to Tehmaz Rasheed Razvi, Umar Soomro, Barrister Abdul Rehman and Barrister Umaima Anwar with direction to ensure their presence on the next hearing to proceed with the matter as apparently all necessary comments had been filed, it added.

“It is made clear that in case, any of the learned counsel for the petitioners is not present to proceed with the matter on the next date of hearing, the interim orders passed earlier shall stand vacated automatically as these matters are dragging on since some of the counsel for some reason or another do not appear before this court,” the bench in its order said.

The bench was informed that notices had also been issued earlier to the advocate general Sindh and attorney general under order 27-A of CPC to assist the court.

While adjourning the matter till May 23, the bench said its earlier interim orders will remain in the field till next hearing.

The petitions were filed by the Indus Hospital & Health Network and several civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in 2020-21 against the Act.

They contended that it was ultra vires and in violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and capable of being used as a tool for oppression and discrimination and was liable to be struck down.

Citing the various federal and provincial authorities as respondents, the petitioners asked the court to declare that economic affairs division (EAD), one of the respondents, had no statutory backing/locus standing and authority to frame, regulate and enact the rules of the NGOs Policy, 2013.

Earlier, the EAD in a reply contended that it had formulated the NGOs Policy 2013 which had been approved by the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet with an aim to ensure effectiveness of foreign aid flowing through NGOs and other non-profit organisations while keeping national interest intact.

It had further maintained that as per policy, documents of NGOs were circulated among the stakeholders, including security agencies, for clearance and on the basis of reports of the stakeholders, the cases of NGOs were decided for signing of MoU.

The EAD had submitted that case of some petitioners were already in process while the cases of three petitioners had not been cleared by security agencies, but they were at liberty to apply any time for any new foreign funded projects as per NGO Policy.

The provincial social welfare department in its reply submitted that the legislation about charities registration was enacted on the advice of federal ministry of interior to fulfil the condition of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to evolve a uniform mechanism of registration, regulation and administration of charities fund collection and utilisation.

It further submitted that such enactment had also been made in other provinces in the public interest to curb the practice of money laundering and utilisation of charitable funds for terror financing.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2022