Centre forms local govt commission to oversee CDA, MCI
MNA Nawaz Awan has been appointed as the chairperson of commission, according to notification issued
January 07, 2020
The federal government has set up a local government commission to oversee operations of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
According to the notification, Nawaz Awan, a member of the National Assembly (MNA), was appointed as the commission's chairperson. Senators Seemi Ezdi and Mushahid Hussain Syed, as well as former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf were selected as its members.
The general secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) women wing for Islamabad, Tayyaba Ibrahim, and the president of PTI youth wing's Central region, Ali Bukhari, were appointed as the technocrat members.
The administrative director at Islamabad Chief Commissioner’s Office would be the commission's secretary, while the ICT chief commissioner would also name a Grade-19 official as its member. The members would serve a five-year term, according to the notification.
The commission's formation was announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan's special assistant on information and broadcasting, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, in December, last year, in a post-Cabinet briefing. She had said it was a requirement under the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act 2015.
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At the time, Dr Awan had said the Cabinet took up the matter of sanitation workers’ delayed salaries. The CDA chair had said it was the MCI's responsibility to pay them; unfortunately, however, they had not done so and the CDA had to release its funds to compensate them.
The MCI and CDA have had conflicts over a handful of matters, including the devolution of some of the CDA departments to the MCI. The latest dispute was over the salaries of the capital's sanitation workers.
The MCI had said the federal government had not approved its financial rules, due to which the institution was unable to spend the money it accumulated; on the other hand, the CDA had argued that paying sanitation workforce's salaries was the MCI’s job.
