Islamabad city still does not have a proper transport system, and the rural part of the city is even worse off, with inadequate clean drinking water, sanitation, housing and roads. GRAPHIC: FILE
Islamabad, as the saying goes, is located ten kilometres outside Pakistan. While this is said in jest, the fact remains that the federal capital is administered in a unique way.
Elected representatives have little say in the development of the city, and instead, it’s the powerful and largely bureaucracy that chooses which development schemes to carry out. The capital city has no representation in any Provincial Assembly and does not have any local government system.
The development of the urban part of the city is in the hands of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), while the neglected rural area is administered by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration, which is headed by a chief commissioner in Islamabad.
Islamabad city still does not have a proper transport system, and the rural part of the city is even worse off, with inadequate clean drinking water, sanitation, housing and roads.
In 2008, the two constituencies of the federal capital - NA-48 and NA-49 were won by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Anjum Aqeel Khan and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry respectively. Neither of them managed to address the issues that plague Islamabad, instead blaming PPP-appointed bureaucrats for being apathetic to the needs of the city.
Faisal Sakhi Butt, a PPP candidate for NA-48, says they’re just making excuses.
“What kind of representatives are they if they can’t get work done by public servants?” He asks, saying that if he gets elected he will push for a Rapid Bus Transit System for the city, a project that has been stalled for many years.
“On my recommendation, Gilani sahib had started working on a constitutional amendment to establish a local government system in the city, but it fell through due to his untimely removal”, said Butt, who had also served as the prime minister’s chief coordinator for Islamabad during the Gilani premiership
“If the PPP returns to power, we will give an effective local government system to the people of Islamabad”, said Butt.
But some of the voters don’t seem convinced. “We don’t expect anything good from the PPP if it comes into power again”, said Raja Aurangzaib, a resident of Barakahu, a rural part of the city. He added that the citizens neither got potable water nor any road projects for their localities in the last five years and that they expect that Imran Khan or Nawaz Sharif will be better for them.
Ahsan Khan, a resident of Bari Imam, said that while candidates are now knocking on their doors, they haven’t seen anyone look out for them in the last five years. “We have dilapidated roads, sewerage problems and no clean drinking water but we don’t know who to go to”, Khan added.
Mian Aslam of JI, who won from NA-49 in 2002, said the previous MNAs did nothing for the development of the city. He also maintained that he would work for forming a city government, a water supply project to the city from Ghazi-Barotha, and other amenities.
While the PML-N candidates could not be contacted due to their engagements in their election campaigns, it seems that there’s going to be a tough fight in these constituencies, with little guarantee that the winner will be able to deliver the goods.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 16th, 2013.
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