‘Councillors’ Ittehad’ gives Islamabad mayor 10 days to resolve issues

LG members say even after two years they have no power, money

ISLAMABAD: Disappointed by their treatment and lack of powers granted to them, a core group of elected councillors from different political parties staged a protest in the capital on Thursday.

The protest staged at Melody Chowk on Municipal Road, was held to mark the two years of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) completed two years of local government system in the city.

The committee, called the “Councillors’ Ittehad”, includes councillors from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) called for empowering the local body system

The disappointed councillors noted that after the local government elections were held in November 2015, the government did not give union councils of the IMC any powers or funds. Moreover, they stated that the government did not want to empower the local government.

By robbing them of their power, the local government system, they said, had been left by the government to slowly die and that the people lose their faith in the system — termed the best system for resolving citizen’s issues at the grassroots level.

As an example, the councillors pointed out that two years after their elections, the IMC has yet to set up offices for Union Councils (UCs).

The councillors noted that since they all lived in the capital, they were easily accessible to the residents of their respective union councils.  However, when the people ask them to resolve their civic issues, they can only make promises since the government had left
them powerless.

“Even after two years, neither have the union councils received any funds nor can they hold their meetings [at offices],” the protesting councillors said.

They added that IMC Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz, after assuming the charge of Capital Development Authority’s chairman, had been ignoring their problems since the local government has failed to get the rules of business for the IMC approved.

They asked where had the Rs2.5 billion, released by federal government for the local government, had been spent, hinting that the mayor and Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) Asad Mehboob Kiyani had rerouted this money back to the CDA since they have yet to be paid either

The local government members chanted slogans against the mayor and offered symbolic funeral prayers for the municipal body.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2017.