ISLAMABAD: The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), which remained neglected by the previous government, could not get any relief from the PTI-led government as the Planning Commission has decided to exclude 13 of its development projects from the ongoing fiscal year.

The local government of the capital city with a population of about two million people was supposed to receive around four billion rupees for the development projects.

However, the federal government imposed a blanket cut on all the projects as these were included in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2018-19 as unapproved projects. An unapproved project is the one whose PC-I is yet to be approved by the Planning Commission.

Bus service, beautification of capital, construction of access roads and procurement of disaster management machinery among the projects

“Since the government has decided not to fund any unapproved project of any ministry/division, we have also been told that all our unapproved projects will not get funds,” Chief Metropolitan Officer Syed Najaf Iqbal told Dawn. He confirmed that all the projects included in the PSDP were unapproved.

The official, however, said the parent ministry of the MCI - the Ministry of Interior - was making efforts to get approval of funding for the projects from the prime minister.

“We are hopeful the government will release some funds otherwise the MCI cannot function properly,” he said.

The unapproved projects included a bus service, beautification of Islamabad, pavements’ construction, water supply, sanitation, access roads, procurement of disaster management and sanitation machinery.

The projects to build a town hall, MCI house and union council chairmen offices were also part of the PSDP.

The project to beautify Islamabad was estimated to cost Rs150 million while an equal amount was required for the construction pavements.

The government had earmarked Rs250m for the procurement of disaster management machinery, Rs400m for four sewage treatment plants in the Rawal Dam catchment area, Rs600m for water supply and Rs100m for union council offices. But now all these projects have been dropped.

However, other officials of the MCI said the federal government was seriously pursuing the case of water shortage in the capital as Prime Minister Imran Khan in his recent meeting with a PTI candidate for the by-election in NA-53 assured him of funds to supply 100mgd of water to Islamabad through the Tarbela Dam water project.

On the other hand, sources said it was also the fault of MCI which was established in 2016 but it could not get development funds from the previous government.

The sources said PC-I of the projects should have been prepared months before finalisation of the 2018-19 budget. They said even today the MCI because of lack of rules and regulations was unable to spend funds it had collected through different taxes.

“From the very first day when MCI was formed, the government did not pay any heed towards it. Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz of the PML-N, who is also known as a close friend of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, could also not arrange any funds for MCI when the party was in power,” said an official of the MCI who requested not be named.

He said initially the previous government was reluctant to hold local government elections in Islamabad but later it had to hold the polls on the directive of the Supreme Court.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2018