ISLAMABAD - Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat has been appointed as administrator of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad for next six months. 
The Federal Cabinet on Wednesday approved a summary moved by the Ministry of Interior in this regard. 
The administrator is supposed to look after day to day affairs of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad in absence of an elected mayor. 
The appointment has been made under Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act 2015 for next six months to run the affairs of MCI and its 50 union councils. 
Though, most of the important directorates of the MCI i.e. water, environment have already been put under the control of the Capital Development Authority but some of the important functions still rest with the corporation. 
At present, the Directorate of Health Services, Directorate of Supports and Culture, Disaster and Emergency Directorate, Revenue Directorate and Directorate of Municipal Services etc. are under the control of MCI. 
Hamza Shafqaat has previous experience serving in MCI as he had worked as the Director Municipal Administration (DMA) – an important directorate of the corporation. 
The MCI was formed in 2016 following the first ever local government elections in Islamabad in November 2015, however, during its five-year term, the MCI failed to deliver as neither the PML-N nor the PTI governments showed any interest to practically own the local government setup. 
The federal government had clipped all the major wings of MCI by returning many directorates to the administrative control of CDA in October 2020 on the pretext of “ensuring smooth and effective service delivery in the capital city and to ease the difficulties being faced by its citizens.”      
These directorates were given to CDA for an interim period of six months under section 94(2) of Islamabad Local Government Act, 2015, however, besides passage of more than one year there is no extension of that notification that could create a legal anomaly in future. 
A senior officer on the condition of anonymity explained that legally speaking, the MCI’s directorates are being controlled by CDA without having a lawful justification after the expiry of six-month time period. 
He stressed that it is the duty of the federal government to either extend the time period through a fresh notification or return the same directorates of MCI as per law.