Islamabad - The number of union councils UCs) in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has been reduced from 79 to 50, as the interior ministry has excluded two sensitive sectors from the jurisdiction of the soon-to-be-formed metropolitan corporation, The Nation learnt reliably yesterday.
The two sensitive sectors, E-8 and E-9, house Naval Complex and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Air Headquarters respectively. Sources in the interior ministry said that both the sectors are likely to be declared cantonment. Both the sectors have no permanent residents. The interior ministry has renumbered the UCs as part of preparations for holding the local bodies elections in the ICT limits.
The sources told The Nation that defence authorities had expressed reservations over giving municipal and administrative control of these two sectors to the civilians. They said the considerations in this regard had started after the defence authorities, keeping in view the sensitive status of the sectors, approached the concerned quarters with a request that these sectors be excluded from the local areas in the ICT the government had notified in April this year for the purpose of holding local bodies elections in the federal capital. The interior ministry had in July 2015 had withdrawn an earlier notification to demarcate and declare the local areas in Islamabad Capital Territory on administrative grounds, paving way for exclusion of both the sectors from metropolitan corporation. The ministry has now delimited union councils keeping in view the population growth rate formula as no population census was done after 1998, the sources added.