ISLAMABAD: The federal government did not set aside any money for the newly setup Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) in its budget for the fiscal year 2017-18 which was unveiled on Friday by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

This will mean there will be no serious development projects in the federal capital and no money was set aside to pay for the daily expense of looking after the two million people living in the federal capital.

No provisions were made in the federal budget for the MCI because budget rules for the corporation have not yet been notified by the interior ministry.

Corporation’s budget rules not yet notified by interior ministry, MCI now dependent on cash-strapped CDA

Headed by Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz, the MCI will now rely on funds from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) which is facing financial challenges of its own.

“I was expecting funds for the MCI in the proposed budget,” Mayor Aziz told Dawn and he was quick to add that the MCI will be given a special grant in the coming months.

MCI opposition leader Ali Awan said this was a deliberate attempt by the government, which did not want to empower the local government.

“Is it not strange that though the local government elections were in Nov 2015, the government has not given the union councils of the MCI anything yet,” he asked, adding that rulers do not want to empower the local government because they had held elections after delaying them for a while and after the Supreme Court ordered for them.

“Now the government has left the local government system to die a slow death so people cannot rely on this system, which is otherwise the best system for democracy for resolving citizen’s issues,” he said.

MCI officials told Dawn they knew there will be no development funds for the MCI as even its budget rules have not been notified when they were forwarded to the interior ministry last year. The interior ministry forwarded the same to the law and finance ministry for vetting.

“We don’t know where our budget rules are lacking,” an MCI official said.

He said the federal government is well aware of the status of the MCI’s budget rules, which are pre-requisite for getting development funds, and the rules of establishment which are necessary for getting non-development funds.

The officials agreed that it is not likely the federal government will give the MCI a special grant in the budget and that there is no mention of the local government in the public sector development programme 2017-18.

“We have not been given any funds yet. This is a big joke,” said Azhar Mehmood, the ruling party’s UC chairman.

Another PML-N UC Chairman Qazi Faisal Naeem said people were excited for the local government for which the bureaucracy was creating hurdles, leading to no funds for the MCI.

He said that though the minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had carried out several development projects from his funds but the UC’s have not yet been given funds by the MCI or the federal government.

A senior PML-N leader said that if the MCI were to become stronger, it will be hard for the ruling party to win in NA 48 and 49, Islamabad.

“The voters of Islamabad are very aware and know that the government is ignoring the local government,” he said.

Of Islamabad’s 50 union councils, 18 fall in urban areas and 32 in rural areas. CDA carried out some development projects in the urban areas but there has been no development activity in rural areas.

Last year, the CADD minister had carried out several development projects in rural areas under a special prime minister’s package, mostly in his constituency and otherwise, there has been no development work in the rural areas, the residents of which are facing several problems including shortage of water, no system for garbage collection and bad roads and streets.

Notified just a month after the federal budget 2016-17, the MCI was only given Rs2.5 billion special grant for non-development expenditure in the outgoing financial year.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2017