Selective development: Saidpur Village and cosmetic surgery

Beneath the flashy veneer of touristy spots and restaurants, a picture of neglect as any other rural area

ISLAMABAD: The Saidpur Model Village at the foot of Margalla Hills is a popular haunt for tourists domestic and foreign alike.

A Mandir and a Gurdwara are among the top attractions there - prompting the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to build a modern information centre there last year. To cash in on the large tourist footfall, the area around the temple is lined with a host of eateries.

The village, thus, is a living heritage site. But beneath the flash of colourful lights which turn night into day at the somewhat overpriced restaurants, a survey by Daily Express revealed that apart from the restaurants and the tourist areas in Saidpur Model Village, it remains a typical village.



The area, which receives dozens of tourists daily, is cleaned regularly.

The city authorities also make sure that all amenities are available.

Indeed, tourists are a major source of revenue for the government and locals. Many villagers have gotten employment as parking ushers or work at the restaurants.

But walk beyond the main street and story is the same as that of other villages. This is partly due to lack of awareness among the people about cleanliness and hygiene and to great extent owing to the apathy of civic authorities.

Piles of garbage can be found strewn in Saidpur Village along with choked drains and broken streets.



Such is the state of unplanned houses and encroached lanes that hauling a patient to the hospital becomes an arduous exercise.

While the work on phase one of Saidpur Model Village, located in Union Council-1 (UC-1) of Islamabad and also includes Talhar and Gokila villages, is in progress, work on phase two remains in files only. Phase two, it seems, was never a priority for any CDA chairman, which is why gas supply lines are only being laid after decades.

On the other hand, according to authorities, after the removal of Mayor Anser Aziz as CDA chairman, the attitude of CDA’s bureaucracy has changed.

As many as 25,000 people live in the UC which has a boy’s and a girl’s school, but it does not have enough teachers. While posts remain vacant at the Talhar boys and girls schools, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has yet to hire teachers for it.



UC-1 Chairman Raja Shiraz Kiyani, who hails from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told Daily Express that Rs1.9 million was approved to lay power lines in Saidpur and Bari Imam, but the work has yet to progress beyond a call for tenders.

While areas around the temple are well supplied, Kiyani said that the local government had to use their own resources to lay temporary and make-shift water connections in some areas of the UC.

“We have laid water lines for half of the area from my own pocket,” he said.

The process of laying gas pipelines in the area has begun and is expected to be completed within two months.

We have worked a lot for the achievement of this basic necessity to locals because they were in dire need of it, Kiyani said, hoping that piped gas will be available to people of the locality.

Apart from the city, Saidpur is the only area in the capital which is provided water by the CDA, he said. According to Kiyani, at least Rs14 million were spent on Saidpur Village phase one, but no work has been done on phase-II. He added the authorities want work to proceed in a manner which does not dislocate or disturb the local population.

Being a local government representative from PTI, Kiyani said he was facing issues in releasing development funds for his UC.

“It has been two years now since the formation of the local government, but no authority, office or funds have been granted by the Islamabad Municipal Corporation (IMC),” he complained.

“We are solving problems of the people from a private office through open court and meetings,” the UC chairman said.

The UC had also submitted a budget estimate of Rs44 million to the IMC for different projects in the UC, including the construction of roads, morgues, a UC office, changing the sewerage system and establishment of a community centre. But realising that they may have to wait far longer for help from the IMC than initially thought, Kiyani said that sitting idle was not an option.

Local government officials, he said, have initiated a system of cleanliness in Saidpur in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation on a self-help basis to hire sanitary workers for collecting garbage from homes.

Meanwhile, locals, while speaking to the Daily Express, said there is only one dispensary in the area. They said that locals are poor and desperately need an outlet of the Utility Stores Corporation to be built so that they can procure daily use items at justified rates.

They said the area has a tube well, but filtration plants were needed to clean the ground water. The sewerage system too needs upgrading.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2018.