Asad Umar vows to take up capital’s issues in NA redux

Outlines plan to solve the water crisis, healthcare crisis plaguing the city

ISLAMABAD: Having already been voted in once, PTI candidate and party stalwart Asad Umar believes he will be able to secure another parliamentary term while other candidates from his party will rout the competition on July 25.

The party leader, who will be contesting from NA-54 Islamabad-III in the upcoming general elections, is optimistic, adding that his party will be continuing its struggle for addressing the years-long grievances of the capital including the acute shortage of water which are currently plaguing the city and to resolve issues of its traders. He promised to take practical steps to resolve these issues on a priority basis.



In the last general elections, Umar had won from NA-48, which comprised mostly urban areas of the capital. This time, he is contesting from NA-54, which is partly comprised of the capital’s suburbs and the Golra shrine area.

Talking to APP, he expressed his resentment over the ignorance of previous governments towards key issues of the capital.

Asked about the efforts he had made for his constituency over the past five years, Umar said claimed that he had worked for the welfare of his voters by taking up the water shortage issue.

"When I was elected an MNA from Islamabad, I took out huge protests, rallies and conducted media debates. I also apprised parliamentary standing committees about the water shortage issue but no attention was paid [to it]," he said.



He pointed out that the city of two million people required 150 million gallons of water per day (mgd). However, it was currently only receiving half of that or around 70 mgd.

He further said that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) has already approved a scheme to supply 100 mgd from the Indus River and that it only needs to be plugged into the Indus Water System. However, he lamented that the scheme fell prey to politics and was never implemented.



Apart from the water shortage, Umar said that the city lacks a proper healthcare system with the Basic Health Units (BHUs) in its rural areas not working. Moreover, he said that there was now adequate place allocated to build a graveyard for the rural areas of the metropolis.

He added that in discussions with Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) chief, the issue of BHUs had been taken up and that he had suggested that Pims supervise the units.

If they form the government Umar said that they planned to set up a BHU in every union council in the rural areas of the city to provide medical facilities at the doorstep of people.

Moreover, he explained that if Pims starts supervising BHUs in the city, it would provide a chance for their doctors to have an opportunity to progress their careers and help reduce the workload at the largest tertiary care hospital in the city.

Furthermore, Umar said that said he had presented a resolution in the assembly, calling on the government to allow a special quota for young people of Islamabad in the National Assembly. This resolution was unanimously approved.

"I also raised the issue of deducting five per cent maintenance and repair charges from the salaries of government servants residing in government accommodations, according to which employees up to basic pay scale (BPS)-5 had been given relief in their salaries," he said, adding that he made efforts to get resolution passed from the Parliament.

Replying to another question, he said that he had introduced a bill which curbed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) power under the CDA Act 1960 to forcefully acquire private lands of citizens for development projects. The law, however, was rejected by the government.

Moreover, he introduced a bill on tenants as per the demands of traders of the city. This too, however, was rejected by the ruling party.

Commenting on local body elections in the city where the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had secured a vast majority, Umar claimed credit.



He claimed that local government elections in the capital — a federally administered territory — were held after he introduced a bill in the lower house of parliament to hold elections in the capital for the first time.

"I also presented a bill to empower local representatives which were not approved as the lower house had completed its duration. PTI would pass the bill after coming into power," he vowed.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2018.