ISLAMABAD-Mayor of Islamabad Shaikh Anser Aziz once again stressed that he is an elected mayor of the city and he would complete his term besides conspiracies.
He was addressing a press briefing in his office on Tuesday to share a four-year performance of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
He said the incumbent government through the local government commission had tried to topple the MCI, but they remained unsuccessful.
Anser reiterated that he had a clear majority in the house that is why the PTI could not bring a vote of no confidence against me.
He informed that the MCI has Rs1.7 billion in its accounts, but it could not be used due to unavailability of financial rules and a dedicated formation in this regard.
“Though, we didn’t have the required funds, but we tried to serve the masses,” he maintained, saying that we carpeted about 400km long roads in the capital city during previous regime of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz.
He maintained that when the MCI was formed, only 50 out of total 192 tube wells in the city were functional, however now 150 tube wells are working properly, he informed.
Anser added that we have beautified a number of parks and green areas in the city with the help of private sector without spending any money from public exchequer, he claimed.
The Mayor of Islamabad said that MCI had tried to award a contract for sanitation services across the city, but it was postponed after concerns raised by the Ministry of Climate Change and the Islamabad Local Government Commission.
Anser stated that he was striving hard to get the financial and business rules approved from relevant forums to make the MCI a fully functional organisation.
Meanwhile, Senate Special Committee on Islamabad to review and examine jurisdictional issues between CDA and MCI also heard Mayor, CDA and Interior Ministry about an ongoing conflict between two institutions.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed here at the Parliament House on Tuesday while it was attended by Senators Dr. Shehzad Waseem, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Mayor Islamabad, Member Finance CDA, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Interior and officials from relevant bodies.
The committee was briefed that the jurisdiction issue was not only between CDA and MCI, but there were also some issues with the ICT administration.
It was told that under the LG Act, a total of 22 departments of CDA was completely transferred to the MCI and 15 were partially transferred, which meant that the control was still jointly exercised by CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad in those areas.
However, despite the division being mentioned in the act and subsequent notifications by the ministry of interior, the devolution process has not been properly implemented so far, which is resulting in the existing problems.
Similarly, the MCI has not been allocated any budget since its coming into existence and the salaries are still being paid by the CDA.
The committee was surprised to know that regardless of passing four years, there have been no rules of business because the particulars of division of assets, human resource, functions and departments were not finalised.
The committee observed that whenever there is a division of assets in any form, it has to be done in the legal framework mentioned in the act and not be done on the basis of any consequent notifications, or mutual consensus.
It further noted that the root cause of the problems seems to be stemming from the lacunas in the act and overlapping jurisdictions in terms of functions and departments.
It was pointed out that the objective cannot be achieved just by transferring the instrument unless the management and functionality is also transferred.