ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Wednesday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to take steps for the provision of water to residents of the city and also criticised the poor performance of the Pakistan Baitul Mal, especially for not distributing ration in Ramazan to those in need.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat met with MNA Rana Mohammad Hayat Khan in the chair to discuss various issues related to the CDA and the poor performance of the Baitul Mal in detail among other items on the agenda.

The committee observed that the CDA is not providing required water to citizens of Islamabad. Chief Metropolitan Officer Asad Mehboob Kayani said the CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) are providing almost 56 million gallons daily (MGD) when the city requires 110 MGD. He told the committee that water levels in the Simly and Khanpur dams are decreasing, adding that the water level in Simly dam on Wednesday was 2,255 feet and that it was 2,270 feet the same day last year.

Mr Kayani said the MCI has been rationing water for the last few months and that it has also repaired many out of order tube wells because of which the situation has improved.

The committee also ordered probe into why Baitul Mal did not distribute ration this Ramazan

“I do agree that there has been a small improvement during the last few months, but citizens are still facing a shortage of water. MCI has to resolve the issue because people are suffering a lot,” said MNA Asad Umar.

He asked that if CDA has not even fixed a pumping motor at the Sangjani water station, how will it provide water to the city’s citizens.

The committee directed Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz to start alternate projects particularly the Ghazi Barotha water project for bringing water from the Indus River.

The committee also expressed displeasure with the government for not allocating a budget for the MCI and assured the mayor that the committee will take the issue up with the finance ministry.

“We are short on funds because we were not allocated funds for the financial year 2017-18,” the mayor told the committee, to which the committee chairman said the MCI should resolve basic issues local are facing such as the provision of water and repairing houses due to which the PML-N votes will increase in the upcoming elections.

The committee also discussed and criticised the performance of the Pakistan Baitul Mal, especially for not distributing ration as part of the Ramazan Package to people in need and the distribution of funds in selected districts.

It directed the secretary Cabinet Division to probe into why ration was not distributed this month and present a report to the committee before July 15.

The issue of the non-utilisation of repair and maintenance funds for government owned houses was also discussed during which the CDA director general said the civic agency only receives Rs200 million each year for the repair and maintenance of 14,000 government owned houses and that this year, Rs60 million of the last quarter was not released.

He said a large portion of the funds go towards the repair and maintenance of Pak-Secretariat, the Foreign Office building and other government buildings and that a small amount is spent on repairing government owned houses.

The committee recommended the funds should only be utilised for repairing government owned houses and that the budget should be doubled to Rs400 million.

Moving NCA

The committee adopted a sub-committee’s report in which it was recommended that the National College of Arts (NCA) be moved from Rawalpindi to Islamabad. The committee directed the mayor to play his role in moving the NCA into the Culture Complex in Shakarparian as proposed by the sub-committee.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2017