Islamabad: the deprived capital

Despite the fact that the constitution identifies Islamabad a different territory from the four provinces, its administrative status remains vague.

There is administrative confusion, replication, and duplications among the federal cabinet and different ministries, parliament, the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), the federal government, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the district administration.

Islamabad has a high court like other provinces, but it does not have a provincial assembly; and legislation is done by parliament. It has a Metropolitan Corporation, but most of the municipal functions are performed by the federal cabinet.

Similar ambiguity also prevails concerning Islamabad’s master plan. The original master plan, drawn out by a Greek firm of architects, Doxiadis Associates and approved in 1961, envisaged the growth of the city up till 2000.

In the mid-1980s during President Ziaul Haq’s regime, the master plan was reviewed by a consultant firm, but the report was never made public. A similar exercise was carried out on the instruction of the then president Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2005 under then CDA chairman Kamran Lashari. A London-based firm was hired to review the master plan, but to date the report has remained hidden from the public eye.

This year on January 1, Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed a new commission under the chief commissioner of Islamabad to review the master plan and table its recommendations up to 2040, within six months.

This six-month deadline is to end in June this year, but last month the commission got approval from the interior ministry to hire a consultant to review the master plan.

The repeated ‘invention of the wheel’ without sharing outcomes has been adding to the prevailing confusion regarding future planning of the capital city.

The result of this political and bureaucratic obscurity has resulted in making Islamabad’s residents the most deprived citizens with regard to constitutional allocations in finance, water, and government jobs. Citizens of Islamabad do not have representation in the Council of Common Interest; do not get any share in the National Finance Commission, Federal Public Service Commission or under the 1991 water accord on the apportionment of the waters from Indus water system.

To add fuel to the fire, early this year the federal cabinet made drastic changes in the master plan without waiting for the completion of the review.

In April this year, the federal cabinet approved building the Naya Pakistan Housing scheme in Mauve Area which is reserved for official buildings. Mauve Area is where construction started in the 1970s and has many important offices such as FIA Headquarters, Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR), Pakistan Post head office, Islamabad High Court, KRL Hospital, Employees Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI), National Highway Authority (NHA).

The insertion of the housing unit into an area reserved for offices is a major policy decision that has changed the whole character of the master plan of the city.

Although the CDA board approved it before the cabinet, the MCI was nowhere in the loop. The MCI itself was elected in 2015 after the passage of an act by parliament to establish a local government system in Islamabad.

In1979 and 2002 attempts were made to establish a local government system in Islamabad, but they failed. The 2015 law says that the new system aims to establish an elected government system to devolve political, administrative and financial power and authority to the elected representative to promote good governance, effective delivery of services and transparent decision making through institutionalized participation of the people.

However, despite the passage of four years, the MCI is still non-functional and struggling to gain its place vis-a-vis the bureaucratic-controlled CDA. The MCI is still not able to generate its own financial resources, and is dependent on the CDA.

In its annual budget of Rs27 billion for 2019-20, the CDA held back Rs3 billion for the MCI. The primary source of revenue of the CDA remains the sale of land, property tax, and federal government handouts.

Of Islamabad’s two million population, half is living in urban areas. The total area of Islamabad capital territory is around 900 sq kilometres. The UNDP estimates that Islamabad is growing at a rate of 6.7 percent, which is more than double of the average urbanization national rate of around 3 percent per annum. With this type of growth, it is challenging to provide adequate municipal services to the citizens of Islamabad. As per a sustainable urbanization report, drinking water supply, solid waste management, maintenance of parks and green belts, etc are complicated.

This situation gets further complicated when the Islamabad territory is not demarcated and separated from adjoining areas. The demarcation process has been going at a snail’s pace only after the intervention of the higher courts.

Islamabad’s 350,000 households are represented by three members in the National Assembly and four in the Senate. All three MNAs are from the ruling PTI. It seems that unlike former prime ministers like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who kept their home towns as their political base, the current PM has adopted Islamabad.

The Supreme Court has regularized one flat of Imran Khan while the honourable court has asked the government to decide the regularization of Bani Gala, a sprawling area on the outskirts of Islamabad which has been the nerve centre of PTI politics.

It seems that the PM is following on the pattern of the Sharifs developing Lahore and making it their power base. Imran Khan seemingly wants to do the same to Islamabad.

Therefore, the anti-encroachment campaign and stopping use of the residential area for commercial purposes, which was initiated by the Supreme Court, is being vigorously followed by the district administration under the direct guidance of the PM.

PTI MNA Ali Nawaz is the PM’s special adviser for the CDA. Ali, who was earlier elected to the MCI in 2015, was elevated by PM Imran Khan to contest the National Assembly seat that he (Khan) vacated.

However, another official strain that originates from the PM Office goes to the interior minister under which falls the Islamabad district administration headed by the chief commissioner, having all the powers and duties as that of a provincial government.

The 2010 devolution of powers to the provinces also has an impact on Islamabad. Many functions were shifted to different federal ministries. The PML-N government formed a separate ministry, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), but it was abolished by the PTI government, and a total of 27 departments working under the CADD have been transferred to seven ministries of the federal government.

Islamabad is governed by an Islamabad code – a compilation of over 200 different laws, rules and regulations legislated by parliament and the provincial assemblies and adopted by the Islamabad. This code is being implemented by a range of government departments without a vertical command and control structure.

This situation requires the government to form a high-level parliamentary commission to determine the political and administrative status of the capital by reviewing the models of other world capitals such as New Delhi and Washington DC and also oversee the master-plan review process.

It is also pertinent that the citizens of the city should be involved in the process by making the previous documents and reports public, and getting their informed recommendations.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Email: nadympak@hotmail.com