ISLAMABAD: The federal government is planning to introduce a new governance model in Islamabad by merging almost all departments, including health and education.

“Yes, almost Delhi type of a government system is on the cards for Islamabad,” said a source in the federal government.

A meeting of a committee formed by the prime minister was held on Tuesday with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal in the chair. The meeting was attended by Parliamentary Affairs Minster Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Adviser to PM on Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Rana Sanaullah Khan, State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry, MNAs from Islamabad Raja Khurram Nawaz and Anjum Aqeel Khan.

The planning minister in a statement said two models had been discussed by a high-profile committee and after finalisation these models would be presented before the federal cabinet for picking one of them.

Sources said under new proposed model, the chief commissioner will act as the chief secretary Islamabad, like the provincial chief secretaries. The meeting also discussed formation of a proposed elected council which will also have nominees of the federal government.

Two models being discussed by committee and after finalisation these will be presented before federal cabinet for picking one of them, says minister

The sources said except home, police and master planning, the functions of CDA will remain part of the federal government while all other departments will be governed under the new model. They said under one of the proposed models, all institutions established or to be established for Islamabad shall cover the entire ICT area (not just urban).

The sources said one of the new models was called Islamabad Capital Territory Government (ICTG), similar to the government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD). The sources said the meeting also considered that Islamabad Capital Territory Assembly (ICTA) will be formed to function as a legislative body like the provincial assemblies.

The proposed legislative body should have a total of 31 members, 15 directly elected, four women and reserved seats and 12 nominees of the federal government from education, health, town planning, commerce and industry, environment, civil society, law and minorities.

The meeting was told that ICT lacked democratic governance and was being run on the basis of the Presidential Order No 18 of 1980 issued by the martial law government.

A participant of the meeting said that the proposed governance model was based on these principles: devolution of power, representative government and utilising existing structures.

Currently, almost three governance models are in place in Islamabad — Capital Development Authority (CDA), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad. Health and education sectors are being regulated by federal ministries.

It is relevant to note here that the last local government elections were held in Islamabad in November 2015 followed by elections for mayor. The first ever elected body of local representatives — MCI — due to overlapping of departments with CDA and ICT coupled with almost no patronage from the federal government could not perform up to the expectations of the people.

In their five-year term, the local government representatives remained in struggle to get issues of their constituents resolved. Even, the federal government did not provide them offices and approved honorarium.  

The tenure of the local government expired in February 2021 and since then the government has been avoiding holding the local government elections. Even, the ECP conducted delimitation five times and also issued election schedules but elections could not be held.

In May this year, ECP came up with a strong worded statement, criticising the government for delaying legislation for holding polls in Islamabad. Now federal government come up with this new model.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2025