PTI boycotts IMC session, protests water shortage

PTI stages rally in capital over mayor’s failure to resolve matter

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority and Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation’s less than urgent attitude towards water shortage in the capital came back to haunt them  on Wednesday.

The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) boycotted the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation session on Wednesday before staging a street protest over the water shortage.

During IMC’s eleventh session, opposition leader Ali Nawaz Awan of PTI strongly criticised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led local government. He said that since the formation of the local government, it had failed to provide basic necessities such as water to the people.

He also criticised them for failing to initiate a single project for public welfare in the city.

PTI members in the council refused to participate in the process of approving the previous session’s minutes, something which was at the top of Wednesday’s agenda.

They continued to protest over the shortage of water.

Awan in his speech repeatedly demanded that IMC Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz give up his post of Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman since his excessive engagements and involvement in the civic agency’s affairs meant he could not spare time for addressing IMC’s issues.

After Awan finished his speech, PTI members boycotted the session. They, however, did not leave the hall and stood to hold up placards and raised slogans.

Opposition member also criticised the Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) for not affording sufficient time to the IMC due to which working the local government was working inefficiently.

This spread panic among some members of the treasury benches, particularly those who do not political backgrounds.

In a blow for the mayor, some PML-N chairmen also joined PTI in protesting against water scarcity and unresolved water issues in their respective union councils.

Aziz tried to assuage the opposition and smooth the ruffled feathers in the treasury benches. However, he could only offer them the oft-repeated promise that all options were being explored to overcome water shortage in the city.

Even the disclosure that plans of a project to draw water from the Ghazi Barotha dam were at advanced stages did not fully placate them.

“This project will permanently resolve complaints regarding water shortage from the city,” Aziz implored. He explained that owing to fewer rains this year had meant that levels in water reservoirs had fallen.

The mayor also tried to throw some statistics at the protesters. He noted that when administrative control of water supply wing had been transferred to the IMC, 192 tube wells were out of order. But they had made 38 of these tube wells operational. Moreover, Rs40million had been released to make dysfunctional tube wells functional again.

He added that the water committees had been empowered to take concrete steps to ensure smooth supply of water.

Moreover, Aziz said that the federal government had released non-development budget worth Rs1.25 billion which would significantly improve the working of the IMC.

To improve the conditions of parks in the city, the mayor said that they were ensuring practical participation of residents in it and an “Own a Park” programme had been launched to ensure community participation in the development process.

Despite the protest, the house managed to pass a resolution for recruiting locals in the Directorate of Health Services.

Following the IMC session, PTI MNA Asad Umar led a street protest over the scarcity of water in Islamabad. The protests were supposed to start at Sector G-9 Markaz and march through Sector G-10/4, G-11 Markaz, I-10 Markaz, cross the ninth avenue, get on to Islamabad Highway and culminate outside CDA secretariat. However, the rally was not allowed to move beyond Sector G-9.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2017.