ISLAMABAD: The much-delayed revision of the master plan of Islamabad has caught attention of the government with the interior ministry seeking details about the reconstitution of the commission from Capital Development Authority (CDA).

However, it is yet to be seen whether the ministry gets the process rolling or the issue remains limited to official correspondence between various organisations. The revision of the master plan is pending for decades.

Doxiadis Associates, a Greece-based firm that prepared the master plan, had recommended its revision after every 20 years in accordance with the needs of time. However, successive governments did not bother to make proper revision rather kept focusing on selective changes without any input from professionals, resulting into poor planning in the capital city.

So far, over 45 changes have been made to the original master plan by federal cabinets without getting any input from the experts. CDA in January this year had sent a summary to the government proposing names of experts to reconstitute the commission to revise the master plan. That summary could not be placed before the cabinet for approval.

However, through an official letter dated July 2 Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi directed the CDA chairman to brief him about the reconstitution of the commission.

A source in the interior ministry said the CDA chairman had been directed to brief the minister prior to placing the summary before the cabinet.

The caretaker government led by Anwaarul Haq Kakar had showed its interest in approving names to reconstitute the already notified commission which had become inactive a couple of years ago. The CDA had moved a summary to the interior ministry in January for placing it before the caretaker government. However, sources said, the summary could not be placed before the caretaker cabinet.

In the said summary the CDA had forwarded a list of 20 experts out of which the cabinet was supposed to approve 13 names. In addition, there would be seven ex-officio members. The seven experts were: Dr Shabihul Hassan Zaidi, Dr Imran Mohammad, Dr Abdul Waheed, Umar Farooq, Shoail Faridi, Mohammad Abdullah and Khurram Farid Bargat.

Meanwhile, the CDA proposed a panel of three experts for one post of transportation planning specialist. They were: Khushal Khan, Mian Wamiq Anwar and Azam Khan Lodhi.

Two names of architects - Prof Dr Noman Ahmad and Ejaz Ahmed Qadri - were proposed against one post. The names of former member engineering and planning CDA Hafiz Ehsanul Haq, Dr Pervez Ahsan Khan and Prof Dr Obaidullah Nadeem had been proposed against the posts of civil engineer, water resource and management expert and academicians, respectively.

Similarly, for one post of environmentalist, the names of Viqar Zikria and Dr Ghulam Raza Bhatti had been proposed along with urban economist Dr Naveed Iftikhar and senor lawyer Hafiz Arfaat Ahmad. The ex-officio members included the CDA chairman, who will act as the convener of the commission, and the member planning, chief physical planning and housing, Planning Commission of Pakistan, director general Rawalpindi Development Authority, director general Pakistan Environment Protection Agency, director general planning CDA and any other co-opted member to be nominated by civic agency’s member planning.

When the PTI government came to power in 2018, it announced that the master plan would be revised and the then prime minister Imran Khan also formed a commission. However, the commission prepared an interim report in 2020 which was mostly related to building by-laws and regularisation of certain areas, including Banigala.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2024