ISLAMABAD: The government’s dismal performance in ensuring the upkeep of the federal capital was the primary focus of opposition lawmakers’ speeches in the National Assembly on Monday, with nearly all speakers blaming the bureaucracy for failing to ensure the provision of basic amenities to the residents of Islamabad.

During a debate on cut motions regarding grants for the federal cabinet and cabinet division fielded by the opposition, it seemed for a while as if Islamabad was the only topic of discussion in the house.

Be it the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira), or their parent ministry, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD); no department was spared the legislators’ wrath.

PTI’s Ali Mohammad Khan delivered a hard-hitting critique of the bureaucratic culture, which he said had ruined the country and rendered the capital city redundant. “They are called public servants, but they behave like public rulers,” he said, sarcastically.

NA budget debate overshadowed by criticism of govt’s handling of capital’s affairs

Asking for civil servants to be made accountable, he suggested that just as lawmakers’ performance was recorded and televised, CCTV cameras should be installed in top bureaucrats’ offices to keep an eye on their performance, or the lack thereof.

He also called into question the Rs64.90 million budgetary allocation for the PM’s Inspection Commission, asking: “When was the last time anyone heard that the commission had inspected anything?

“It is [TV channels and newspapers] that fulfill this responsibility. Show me when the inspection commission has taken any action?”

Airport

PTI’s Shireen Mazari devoted nearly her entire speech to criticism of the government’s mishandling of the capital’s affairs. Taking issue with the overcrowding and congestion at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, she spoke of the plight of ordinary passengers.

“The runway is closed every other day… there is no word on when the new airport will be inaugurated. I’ve heard that they’ve built the runways so close together that two planes can’t [land or taxi] simultaneously.”

CDA

She then decried CDA’s haphazard methodology of removing commercial entities from residential sectors, saying that it had taken Supreme Court orders for the authority to finally wake up and do its job. “Hair dressers and restaurants are still operating in Sector F-6… [tell me] on what basis does the CDA take action?”

She described the authority as a body with “too many issues, not enough focus”, adding, “only God can save CDA now”.

Ms Mazari also took strong exception to the fact that Pakistani citizens were denied access to the Diplomatic Enclave.

“Foreigners are allowed in but Pakistanis are not. This is discrimination against your own people, Mr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry,” she said, addressing the CADD minister.

“The cabinet secretariat has a diverse agenda and they cannot concentrate on it properly,” she said, asking for the functions of the division to be bifurcated.

Water crisis

In an impassioned speech, PTI’s Nafeesa Inayatullah Khattak laid into the government for not doing anything to address the water crisis being faced by residents of the capital. “There are areas, such as Mehrabadi, E-11 and D-12, you can bore down as far 300 feet and still not find sweet water,” she said.

“The streams that used to flow down from the Margallas used to contain sweet water, but today they are filled with trash. The Simli and Rawal dams cannot cater to the water needs of the people, while rainwater is wasted because there are no reservoirs.”

She also decried the role of environmental agencies in keeping the capital green, saying that the western end of the Margalla Hills was all but bare, with no vegetation to speak of. “People are building without any proper permission or plan.”

Education

“The education ministry is divided. Madressahs answer to one ministry, Peira and government schools come under the same ministry, but different departments. There are only 18 employees in Peira, and the owners of private schools don’t pay them any heed,” said Ms Khattak.

“If federal schools and model schools are clubbed under one umbrella and have one syllabus, it will be much better for everyone,” she concluded.

PPP’s Azra Fazal Pechuho alleged that it was impossible to get one’s children admitted to the better schools in the capital on the basis of merit alone, adding that it was necessary to have political clout in order to get anywhere.

Ali Mohammad of the PTI also took issue with the elitist culture of education when he lamented that: “None of our children study in government schools, none of us go to government hospitals for treatment, yet we call ourselves representatives of the public.”

Health

Ms Pechuho called attention to the state of affairs at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and Polyclinic, which she said were unable to handle the load of patients that was rising day by day.

“The quality of laboratory and surgical services at both hospitals is very poor. It is necessary that basic health units and dispensaries in the federal capital provide secondary care to patients so that the load on tertiary care hospitals can be lessened,” she maintained.

Talking about the complete dearth of oncology and radiation therapy facilities in the capital, she said that Islamabad’s hospitals did not have linear oscillators, cryo-surgical facilities or any of the latest equipment that was available at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi.

Ali Mohammad also raised the issue in his speech, saying that effective treatment for heart and kidney issues was not available anywhere in the capital and people had to spend a lot of money to travel abroad for this purpose.

Ms Khattak also took issue with the lack of facilities for non-Muslim communities in the capital. “Do they have anywhere to worship, to bury their dead or perform other rituals,” she asked, calling on the government to urgently take notice of this glaring oversight.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016