Extension of municipal limits: On expanding domain, CDA shows hesitancy

Civic agency staffers worried about adding strain on already limited budget.

ISLAMABAD: It seems there is still some reluctance on the part of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to bring much of rural Islamabad into its municipal limits. This is in spite of the fact that the demand has been among rural residents’ top priorities for many years.

Background interviews with CDA officials showed that the core reasons for their qualms are administrative and financial.

According to a housing survey conducted by the Census Department in 2011, the estimated population of Islamabad was 1.7 million, out of which 0.7 million were residing in capital’s rural areas, which is managed by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration.

Though politicians belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) — both of which dominate the region politically — have time and again raised the issue within and outside Parliament, it never came to fruition.

In the recent past, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee of the Cabinet Secretariat also delved into the issue for months to sort out the matter, but to no avail.



The record shows that the total ICT area is 225,000 acres, while the notified municipal area is 76,000 acres. Out of the total notified municipal area, the CDA is currently only providing municipal services to completely developed areas, which is around 50 per cent of the total notified area and accounts for around 700,000 people. Around 300,000 urban residents and 700,000 rural residents are still out the municipal services loop.

The rural areas of Islamabad comprise 133 villages in 12 union councils. Of these 12 union councils, as many as 10 union councils fall within Zone IV of the federal capital.

The CDA recently allowed housing projects in Zone-IV, which spreads over 70,000 acres. Following amendments to the city’s zoning regulations, several housing societies have sprung up in the area, including the CDA’s own Park Enclave in Zone-IV.

Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, the PML-N MNA for NA-49— Islamabad’s rural seat — supports the idea of extending hte CDA’s municipal limits to rural areas. He said the CDA has been generating handsome revenue after allowing private developers to develop housing societies in Zone IV, which actually falls within the rural areas of the federal capital.

“The CDA has estimated around Rs10 billion in revenue from the sale of plots in Park Enclave, but when it comes to providing basic civic amenities to rural residents, it shirks from its responsibilities,” Chaudhry told The Express Tribune.

He questioned why the CDA is not proposing amendments to the federal cabinet regarding extension in their municipal limits when the civic agency readily amended the CDA Ordinance for its own benefit.

“The deprivation of rural residents can be gauged from the fact that they got only Rs230 million for development work out of the CDA’s Rs23 billion annual fiscal budget,” Chaudhry said, adding, “This is the main reason behind the absence of basic civic facilities in rural areas.”

However, the city managers think otherwise. “Additional manpower to the tune of 1,500 officials will be required if we extend the CDA’s municipal limits to the rural areas, while another Rs1 billion per annum will be required for the upkeep of the added areas,” said a CDA board member asking not to be named. The board member said it was impossible to go ahead with the idea when financial constraints remain a bottleneck.

He said that as per the CDA homework on the matter, the expected revenue generation under all sort of heads from the inclusion of the rural areas would be between Rs250-300 million.

“The wide gap between revenue generation and expenditure keeps us away from this plan,” he said.

CDA municipal limits were lastly extended on January 1, 1999, when the Islamabad Highway area was added to the municipal limits, CDA Spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said.

He said the federal government was the ultimate authority to allow the CDA to exercise and perform municipal functions for a specific period in specified areas within ICT limits.

Sajid said that the inclusion of rural areas within CDA’s municipal limits was under consideration and the authority would take a decision based on the pros and cons of the proposed plan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2013.