Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Whatsoever the reasons behind a letter sent by the Prime Minister’s Office addressed to the Chairman CDA to convey the PM’s displeasure over the unsatisfactory state of affairs regarding municipal and allied services in Islamabad, but one thing was ignored or intentionally overlooked that all eight flaws pointed out in the said letter had nothing to do with the CDA as these functions were in the domain of the MCI.

A letter received from the PM’s office listed eight points including insufficient system of sanitation including garbage collection and its disposal, poor state of footpaths and roads particularly in smaller streets, lack of cleanliness along streams, broken and worn down state of public parks, encroachments in markets and roads, street lightening system especially on smaller roads, invisibility of horticultural activities and incomplete and misleading road signals system.

It is pertinent to mention here that most of the shortcomings mentioned in the letter are basically under the domain of the MCI not the CDA as after the establishment of the local government the said subjects had been devolved to the MCI.

The federal government had divided the powers, liabilities and assets between both the CDA and the MCI by placing 23 formations of the CDA completely under the control of the MCI while 49 formations were partially devolved to the newly elected set-up.

An officer of the Authority rationally criticised the letter and said: “The real issue is unavailability of funds for the MCI which should be resolved by the Prime Minister’s Office instead of arm twisting the CDA.” “The PM should manage to release the requested budget of Rs 10 billion for the MCI while the Mayor should also give a clear picture to the PM regarding unavailability of funds,” he suggested.

However, while responding on this issue, the Mayor of Islamabad upheld the point that the letter should be addressed to the MCI as mostly problems are related to its domain, but he argued: “In my view, the letter was written with the name of the Chairman CDA as there is a confusion regarding bifurcation of liabilities between the CDA and the MCI and nothing is clear so far.” “The letter not only pointed out shortcomings but the PM also sought a way out to resolve the issue and we will defiantly request for the provision of funds. I am hopeful the funds would be released soon”, the Mayor added.

Meanwhile, following the said harsh letter and subsequent suspension of four officers, a high level meeting was held at the CDA on Monday to resolve those public issues pointed out by the PM’s office on prompt basis. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Aziz whereas the Member Planning and Design, Asad Mehboob Kiani, Member Administration, Yasir Perzada, Member Finance, Dr. Fahad Aziz, Director Generals and Directors of different formations were also present.

Sources briefed that the Mayor Islamabad Shaikh Ansar Aziz adopted a hardline while chairing the meeting and said nobody would be spared for his negligence.

The mayor also ordered to issue show cause notices to the Director Water Supply and the Director Enforcement, who were absent from the meeting.

It was decided that the encroachments from the city would be removed as they pose a major danger to the beauty and symmetry of Islamabad.

It was decided that an anti-encroachment drive would be set a float with full vigour and muscle.

A three-day deadline would be given to all encroachers in the city to voluntarily call off their encroachments.

At the expiry of the date, an operation would be launched, the meeting concluded. The mayor directed all officials to submit their proposals and a framework to uplift the facilities.