Local PTI lawmakers plan petition against Islamabad mayor
ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers from Islamabad belonging to the ruling PTI said the capital city was being turned into a Kachra Kundi as the mayor had failed to deliver.
Addressing a press conference, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on CDA Affairs MNA Ali Nawaz Awan and MNA Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz alleged that the mayor was deliberately not resolving public issues.
They announced that within a week they would file a constitutional petition in Islamabad High Court against Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz.
Say we will request court either to hand over MCI departments to CDA or Ministry of Climate Change
“We will request the court either to hand over departments of MCI to CDA or the Ministry of Climate Change. If a need arises we will also take other constitutional steps such as an in-house change,” said MNA Awan, adding the mayor always preferred to stay in London.
“PTI won all three MNA seats from Islamabad so I would request the mayor not to take revenge from the residents,” he said and demanded that the mayor, who belongs to PML-N, should resign.
Before becoming MNAs in 2018, both the PTI leaders were union council chairmen and served as members of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
The lawmakers said because of the negligence of MCI, the capital city was littered with garbage as private contractors hired by the mayor had stopped work after the mayor discontinued their contract.
However, they said, they would not allow the mayor to turn Islamabad into a Kachra Kundi as the government had approved Rs250 million for Islamabad and the first tranche of Rs50 million would be released on Monday which would be spent on sanitation, water supply, environment, horticulture etc.
“From Monday people of Islamabad will see various works in progress,” Mr Awan said.
He said the mayor had discontinued the package-III project under which the contractors used to collect garbage from I-8, I-10, Bhara Kahu, Lehtrar road etc.
“Employees of the contractors of G-6, G-7 are also on a strike for the last a few days because of non-payment of salaries,” he said, adding Islamabad, which used to be a neat and clean city, was now presenting a look of Karachi.
Mr Awan said the mayor had Rs2 billion in various accounts of MCI, including an account in Bank of Punjab, from which they were initially spending but now have stopped.
“The mayor is setting up another account in violation of a cabinet decision to circumvent collection by the CDA for financing the MCI,” he said, adding during his three-year tenure the mayor had not developed financial and human resource rules.
“The mayor is a parashooter and has no interest in resolving issues of the public. In Union Council Khana, garbage was collected only once during the last one year,” said Mr Nawaz.
He said the mayor and former PML-N MNA Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry did not properly plead the case of unauthorised construction in Supreme Court that resulted into a ban on utility connections for new buildings.
They said soon work on Bhara Kahu bypass would be started while a flyover would be constructed at Tarnol.
Various health and education schemes will also be started soon whose funding has already been secured in Public Sector Development Programme for the ongoing fiscal year.
“In Islamabad, there are 16 basic health units which are being revamped,” said Mr Nawaz.
Mr Awan said new hospitals, including 50-bed hospital in Bhara Kahu, 200-bed hospital in Tarlai and 200-bed facility in Jhangi Syedan are also in the pipeline. “A plot has been allotted to Polyclinic for D-12 for its expansion,” he said.
Mr Awan said Islamabad with a population of over 2.2 million people was facing water shortage as no new scheme was launched during the last many decades.
He said Ghazi Barotha Water Project, which was announced 10 years ago, was not started on time.
Talking about expansion of Islamabad Highway from Koral to GT Road, the lawmakers said as a short-term measure u-turns and construction of service roads would be carried out as CDA was holding talks with societies. “We will also construct Korang Bridge,” Mr Awan said.
Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2019