ISLAMABAD: The government has been failed to meet a compulsory deadline of one hundred and eighty (180) days mentioned in the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act 2015 regarding distribution of functions in terms of rights, assets and liabilities between Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The section 130 of said law states, “The Government or an officer designated by the Government shall, within one hundred and eighty days of the commencement of this Act, divide rights, assets and liabilities of the local government or the Authority amongst the local governments and the Government or the Authority, and the decision of the Government or of the designated officer shall be final.”
The Ministry of Interior issued a notification on 14 June, 2016 to enforce Local Government Act 2015 while the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) following the decision had also issued a separate notification regarding transfer of rights, assets and liabilities between both CDA and MCI on 22 June, 2016 under the powers conferred by aforementioned section 130 of ICT Local Government Act 2015.
Yesterday, the provision of one hundred and eighty days mentioned in the same section has been expired, but unfortunately the devolution process is still pending even though the head of new local government Mayor Islamabad ShaikhAnsar Aziz is currently in a quite dominant position in both CDA and MCI.
Initially, it was conceived by pro local bodies elements at large and clearly criticised by the Mayor that the powerful bureaucracy in CDA is hampering the whole process of devolution, but when the Prime Minister empowered him by granting the look after charge of Chairman CDA, he has also failed to settle the dispute.
A senior officer of the authority on the condition of anonymity has commented; “Mayor is not quite serious in establishing MCI as an institution while his stay in CDA, but he is more interested in day to day affairs of the civic body.”
“It was a golden chance for Mayor to negotiate with all stakeholders to reach on some agreement by using his dominant position of Chairman CDA, but he has been failed due to his tilt towards money making projects”, he added.
However, Mayor ShaikhAnsar Aziz while talking to the Daily Times has said; “we are aware of it that the deadline given in the Local Government Act 2015 is going to expire and keeping this fact in view we have moved a summary to the Ministry of Interior for further action and soon a final decision is expected in this regard.”
Earlier in June this year, the notification of the Ministry of CADD had placed 23 formations of the CDA completely under the control of MCI while 49 formations were devolved partially to the elected setup.
The said notification was challenged by the workers union in Islamabad High Court (IHC).
In result the court had imposed a ban on transfer and posting and asked all stakeholder to reach on a solution by mutual agreement otherwise court will decide as per law.
It is pertinent to mention here that the MCI is still taking loan from CDA to fulfil its financial requirnments and no funds have been issued so far from the finance ministry.