Senate panel on interior seeks transfer of funds to IMC

Committee stops transfer of CDA official against their wishes

ISLAMABAD: With the local government of the federal capital hamstrung three years after they were elected into power, a Senate panel on Tuesday asked the interior ministry to provide details of the funds provided by the civic authority to the metropolitan corporation and to transfer all the requisite funds to the elected body within a fortnight.

Moreover, the panel has stopped the transfer of officials from the civic authority to the corporation without first obtaining their consent on the matter.

This was directed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior which met at the Parliament House on Tuesday with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Rehman Malik in the chair.

During the meeting, longstanding issues relating to the administrative, financial and legal issues between the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) were reviewed.

The committee asked the interior ministry to share details with the committee of the funds transferred by the CDA to the IMC, apart from the amount of money which will be transferred to the IMC.

Malik further directed that all the funds should be transferred to the IMC within 15 days. The committee’s chairman directed that there should be a proper guarantee that all the benefits and facilities which CDA’s employees are entitled to are maintained when they are transferred to the IMC.

Furthermore, he directed that employees of CDA should not be transferred to the IMC without their consent, in accordance with Rule-115 (3) of the ICT Local Government Act 2015.

He further directed that proper legislation should be devised which cover all reservations raised by CDA employees.

Additionally, Senator Malik directed the interior ministry to take immediate measures to implement the recommendations of the sub-committee within 15 days and then inform the committee accordingly.

Earlier, federal Interior Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman Khan, while briefing the committee about the IMC, said that the Local Government Act 2015, has not been fully implemented thus far.

He further said that the matter had been forwarded to the former interior minister who was then supposed to raise the matter before the federal cabinet for its resolution. But there did not appear to be any real progress on that.

Per ICT Local Government Act 2015, Malik said that 37 directorates of the CDA were supposed to have been transferred to the IMC. But three years on, only 22 directorates have been transferred from the civic authority to the corporation while 15 directorates have yet to be transferred.

Moreover, Malik said that Amanullah Khan, the secretary general of CDA’s Central Bargaining Agent (CBA), had been allowed to present his point of view on the matter.  Senator Malik, who served as the federal interior minister during the PPP government, said that the committee has been reviewing the matter for the past seven months and had nominated Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Mian Ateeq Shaikh, as a coordinator to amicably resolve issues between the CDA and the IMC after consulting with the Interior Ministry and other stakeholders.  Malik proceeded to present a report prepared by the Shaikh’s sub-committee which was unanimously adopted by the committee. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2019.