• Minister says CDA in process of hiring international consultants
• Feeder route from Sector I-16 to N-5 Metro Station to become operational by Jan

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior got a chance to review the revised master plan of the capital which was submitted to the federal cabinet under the caretaker setup in January as the lawmakers were informed by a key minister that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was currently in the process of hiring international consultants to turn Islamabad into a ‘smart city’.

Shehla Raza of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), who was presiding over the National Assembly session in the absence of the speaker and the deputy speaker on Friday, referred the issue to the committee on the request of her party colleague, MNA Shazia Sobia Soomro, who had raised the matter during the Question Hour session.

Information Minister Ataullah Tarar, who was responding to the questions in the absence of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, had already suggested to the chair that she might refer the matter to the committee to allow the elected representatives to review the proposed changes in the master plan and give recommendatins.

The minister informed the lawmakers that the caretaker federal cabinet had received the ‘revised master plan’ on January 22 and decided that local consultants would not be hired for this purpose.

After receiving the proposals, he said the cabinet decided that they should study the master plans of major cities of developed countries and see the facilities available to the citizens there.

He said modern cities were being turned into ‘smart cities’ with the help of modern technologies.

Mr Tarar said the CDA had already written a letter to the interior ministry to allow it to tender for hiring the international consultants.

He said a new IT Park and a state-of-the-art cancer hospital were being built in the capital, which were already included in those cities of the world that had been established under a meticulous master plan.

In response to a question regarding expansion of Islamabad’s boundaries after setting up of societies like Bahria Town and DHA along G.T. Road, the minister said so far there was no plan under consideration to expand Islamabad’s territorial limits.

Mr Tarar said the CDA was currently working on reviewing the master plan and had constituted the Federal Commission to Review the Master Plan of Islamabad in response to the Islamabad High Court’s directives in a writ petition dated April 19, 2018, as well as the direction from the cabinet.

The interior ministry issued the notification for the commission on January 14, 2019, including its terms of reference (ToRs).

The National Assembly was informed that since the process of review was still ongoing, therefore, complete details of the master plan with significant changes could only be shared once the commission completed its study and submitted its recommendations to the federal government for approval.

Feeder route

In response to a question asked by PPP’s Ramesh Lal, the minister informed the house that the proposed feeder route (FR-11) from Sector I-16 to N-5 Metro Station was expected to become operational by January 2025 and electric buses would ply on the route after development of necessary infrastructure such as bus parking area, maintenance and cleaning yard.

So far, the minister said the I-16 route, which was under development, lacked public transport service.

He said Sector I-16 would then be connected to Islamabad and Rawalpindi through Orange Line and Red Line Metro Bus Service.

Delay in issuance of passports

In response to a question asked by MQM’s MNA Rana Ansar regarding the delay in the issuance of new passports, the interior minister, through a written reply, informed the house that the passport production facility was never expanded nor equipped with the contemporary technology or equipment for faster and better printing process since the start of the printing of the Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) in 2004.

Presently, he said, the department was facing a very high trend of daily passport applications around 45,000 to 50,000 from field formations, whereas, the production facility could merely cater for 20,000 to 22,000 passports per day. As a result, a backlog was getting accumulated.

To overcome this printing capacity gap and to facilitate applicants on war-footing basis, Mr Ansar said the department had made production facility operational 24/7 in three shifts.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2024