New regulatory framework for capital on cards

Initiative being taken to avoid urban flooding

ISLAMABAD:

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Capital Development Authority (CDA) Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan on Tuesday announced that a new regulatory framework was being developed for the federal capital to merge different organisations, including the civic agency, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), cooperative departments, Companies Acts and others into one.

Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, he informed that the initiative was being taken to avoid urban flooding such as the one that occurred in Sector E-11 that took the lives of a mother and her child recently.

Summary of the framework had been submitted to the federal cabinet, he said while hoping that it would be turned into law soon after its principal approval. He maintained that efforts were afoot to carry out a hydrological survey of different sectors.

Read Urban flooding in Islamabad

He further said the flooding was caused due to the narrowing down of the nullah to 18 feet from its natural domain of 40 feet. It has also been found that the civil society had shown slackness in clearing the nullah, which is their routine responsibility, he stressed.

Awan stated that the nullah would be restored to its previous shape by removing all the illegal constructions on its banks so that the risk of urban flooding could be averted in the future. He assured that whether the encroachments erected on this nullah through illegal permission and force or developed due to slackness of the CDA, cooperative society or any other agency, all of them would be removed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2021.