RAWALPINDI, Sept 4: The federal minister for railways, Shaikh Rashid Ahmad, announced here that the issue of property tax on five-marla houses in the cantonment area would be resolved before the forthcoming general elections.

The minister was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Government Degree College for Girls in Saddar, here on Monday. The college is expected to be completed in two years at a cost of Rs140 million. The city district nazim, Raja Javed Akhlas and some residents of the area also spoke on the occasion.

The college will be built on a 10-kanal area given by the Pakistan Railways to the Punjab government on lease. He also announced to build a school up to the SSC level at the college premises.

He criticized the functioning of the two cantonment boards of Rawalpindi and said their bureaucracy was creating hurdles in the implementation of the government’s decision to waive property tax on five-marla houses. “It is the most difficult job on the earth to discover a file from the record of (the) Cantonment Board,” Shaikh Rashid said while expressing his total dissatisfaction over the performance of these boards.

He pointed out that the sanitation situation in the cantonment areas was also deteriorating.

Stating that the cantonment boards were not able to maintain the entire cantonment area, Mr Rashid proposed that some parts of the area should be merged with the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) for better management.

He regretted that Rawalpindi was the most neglected city of the country in terms of development as it lacked funds, but proposed that the city should be merged with the federal capital, where the Capital Development Authority was a civic body with enough financial resources to look after Rawalpindi as well.

The minister, who is from Rawalpindi, feared the city would turn into a village when the General Headquarters (GHQ) moves to Islamabad.

He said he has a vision to make Rawalpindi, Islamabad and their adjoining tehsils into the “city centre government” as practised in several world capitals, including New Delhi and Paris.

With the opening of the college for which he laid the foundation stone, the minister said he had completed his mission to spread a network of academic institutions in Rawalpindi, which include opening of 53 educational institutions.

He would now concentrate, he said, on improving medical facilities in the city as the condition of hospitals was not up to the mark. He mentioned the Rawalpindi Cantonment General Hospital and said despite having a huge structure, it had failed to perform due to financial constraints.

The hospital, he suggested, should either be taken over by the federal government or the army; and if not, Pakistan Railways was ready to take it over. He said he had arranged Rs90 million for the hospital over the years. In his capacity as railways minister, he had waived freight charges on machinery acquired by the Holy Family Hospital, he said.