The city managers are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Islamabad claiming that the federal capital is one of the best cities in the country in terms of civic facilities. However, those who know about the capital and its master plan are quite disappointed and have different views about what has been done and what still is required to be done.

Ironically, even after 50 years of its establishment half of Islamabad is yet to be developed as more than half of its residential sectors in the urban area could not be developed due to certain reasons.

People are still facing acute water scarcity in the city which aggravates in summer and the sewerage system has also become obsolete. The rate of pollution has increased manifolds mainly due to reckless cutting of trees marring the green image of the city. On the other hand, a number of basic civic amenities are not available to the masses.

According to old CDA officials, who had contributed their role in building the capital and now are living retired life, the development of the city continued till the '80s after which there was a long pause for almost two decades till Kamran Lashari assumed the charge of chairman CDA in 2003. But even in his tenure, which many people consider as the 'golden era' of CDA, no new sector was developed and many basic civic amenities were ignored at the cost of projects which won apparent promotion and applaud for Mr Lashari without addressing basic problems of the citizens like provision of adequate water, better sewerage system, cleanliness and the much-required transport service.

SECTORAL DEVELOPMENT The last residential sector developed in Islamabad was F-11 that was opened 23 years ago in 1987 and since then no residential sector has been given to the people increasing housing backlog to over 350,000 units. Some of the sectors were opened by the CDA and the ministry of housing but they are yet to be developed and housing has not been started. On the other hand, the menace of encroachment has remained on the rise during the last 50 years and many sectors could not be developed due to non-acquisition of land and removal of illegal occupants from sectors like G-12 and F-12. This indicates the helplessness of CDA to acquire these sectors for housing. Now such sectors have become a stigma on the performance of the CDA and a challenge to its writ.

The CDA had announced Sector D-12 in 1987 but it is yet to be developed completely and the authority is going to inaugurate the sector on January 4 despite the fact that over 250 kanals of its land is still under adverse possession. Many town planners believe that without going into joint venture with the private sector the CDA cannot acquire the stalled sectors.

Recently, the authority made the first ever joint venture with a cooperative housing society and managed to acquire 54 acres of land called northern strip, a commercial area in E-11. But the joint venture was challenged in the Supreme Court which is conducting hearing on it. The authority has certain limits to give compensation of land to the landholders but private firms can go beyond the limits and settle the issue on case-to-case basis. Many other sectors like F-13, F-14, F16, D-13, D-14, D-15, C-14, C-15 and C-16 also require joint ventures for development to meet the accommodation requirements of the citizens.

WATER SHORTAGE The CDA had planned to draw water from Tarbela Dam at a cost of over Rs47 billion to cater to the need of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. But the project was rejected by the government. The authority also planned to replace the rusty underground water distribution network to save wastage of water before it is received at the users' end but the plan is yet to be implemented.

NO BUS SERVICE Islamabad may be the first federal capital which lacks a bus service causing abundance of cars on roads and putting commuters at the mercy of private wagon and cab drivers.

NO CENIMA The capital city has no cinema and its planners have not considered it an important issue to provide entertainment to the residents.

VIOLATION OF MASTER PLAN

Although the master plan is not a sacrosanct document as stated by the CDA chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi but till no amendment is made to it, anything against it is a violation of CDA rules. During the last 50 years, a number of gross violations have taken place but the CDA always behaved like a silent spectator. Establishment of Jinnah Convention Centre and McDonald's in F-9 Park were some of the violations of the master plan.