ISLAMABAD: A day after completion of five-year term of local government, a deputy mayor acknowledged that Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and Local Government Act 2015 failed to transform into an ‘effective and classified system’.

In his letter to Prime Minister, President, Chief Election Commissioner, Interior Minister and other ministers and offices concerned, the deputy mayor Syed Zeeshan Naqvi said that five-year tenure of the “Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad “had gone astray rather collapsed in its entirety.

Mr Naqvi, who belongs to PML-N, said the failure caused to this system has nonetheless variety of reasons both domestic and peripheral.

He said that five year(s) experiment shall be an eye-opener for the law-makers, executors and the state, to review these grey areas, and undertake stringent steps to rectify them.

He said that the Local Government Act 2015, was primarily a weak document, in terms of its efficacy, having confused clauses, perhaps being typical of the bureaucratic jugglery.

He said there was a dire need to review the structural modifications in these ICT-LGA 2015.

The role of CDA and its management has been on the top of things, for not letting this MCI dream come true.

He also said that selection of the mayor has also been a quandary from its origin. Instead nominating a selected person from within the system, a totally irrelevant and inexperienced individual somewhat managed to get nomination as mayor, perhaps due to the inconsistent and imperfect ICT-LGA 2015, he said.

“The then mayor, have admittedly failed in evolving a system throughout his occupancy, even as chairman, CDA as well as mayor, Islamabad. The centralised system of his administration, and keeping all powers and channels from transferring a peon to DGs under him alone, caused damages to this newly established MCI.

The deputy mayor said that rules of business, MCI-annual budgets, MCI-house resolutions and implementation, the service regulations, the handing over of assets, etc., are all pending issues for years and years, on part of the bureaucracy.

“The mayor, without any structural powers, rules, budget and system was put to perform jobs and sought for progress, whereas the amount of this confusion has been manipulated by the miscreants at their level, bringing maladministration into play for five years on MCI’s shoulders. This red-tape is to be restrained and brought to justice, for future endeavours of this system,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021