Interior ministry forms local govt commission

SAPM on CDA Ali Nawaz Awan appointed chairman of the panel; Mayor Ansar Aziz suspended

ISLAMABAD: After approval of the federal cabinet, the interior ministry has formed a local government commission for a period of five years.

The elected local government would be obliged to implement the decisions of the commission.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Capital Development Authority (CDA) Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan has been appointed as the chairman of the commission.

As per a notification issued by the interior ministry on Tuesday, the commission would comprise nine members including the chairman. It stated that Senator Seemi Ezdi and MNA Raja Khurram Nawaz have been chosen as the members from government benches whereas Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and MNA Raja Pervaiz Ashraf would represent the opposition in the commission.

The technocrat members include Ali Bukhari and Tayabba Ibrahim whereas the Islamabad chief commissioner would nominate a basic pay scale (BPS) 19 official.

The commission will possess judicial authority and powers whereas a principal accounting officer would serve as its secretary.

Elected bodies made dummies

The unprecedented powers of the newly-formed commission would transform the elected representatives of Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) into mere dummies, sources said.

The commission has been granted such powers that on its recommendation, the federal government could suspend the mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice-chairman for six months on any kind of charges and if found convicted, they could be removed from their seats, sources close to the development said.

The commission would have the license to launch a probe into any matter related to IMC while it could also send any recommendations to the federal government for taking action against an elected representative, sources said requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.

A separate secretariat would be established for the commission for which the federal government would earmark funds every year, they said.

Meanwhile, the federal government will be empowered to remove any member of the commission on failing to satisfy it on any complaint or discrepancy, sources said quoting the documents they had seen.

The local government (LG) would be obliged to implement the decisions of the commission. The newly-formed panel would be authoritative to start an audit from a firm of its choice whereas it can further carry out inspection of any department of LG at any instance.

The commission can consult and give recommendations to Islamabad mayor on the annual development programme including suggestions to any department of LG for improvement in its performance. It will also prepare an annual performance report of LG and submit it to the federal government.

The sources added that the commission can intervene to resolve issues between the LG and Union Councils (UCs) and if it fails to do so, the matter would be referred to the federal government. The Express Tribune made several attempts to contact Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz but he could not be reached.

However, a senior official of IMC endorsed the plethora of powers the commission has been bestowed with and said that the elected representatives would become just mannequins as all the powers have been granted to the commission.

Mayor suspended

Meanwhile Awan has confirmed that Mayor Ansar Aziz has been suspended. Talking to the Express Tribune he said that the Local Government Commission could not remove the mayor from his post, only suspend him for a maximum period of six months.

He further said that the Local Government Commission and the Capital Development Authority Board were formulated as per the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act.

With additional input by Haider Naseem 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2020.