ISLAMABAD: It seems the federal government is still undecided about the long-delayed revision of Islamabad’s master plan.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) during the last few years had sent several summaries for reconstitution of the master plan commission, but to no avail.

After approval of the federal cabinet, the commission will be notified to start the revision of the city’s blueprint. The latest summary dated September 10, carrying 15 names of experts was sent to the Ministry of Interior for onwards submission to the federal cabinet.

Meanwhile, another summary dated October 23, available with Dawn, with some new names was being discussed in the CDA. However, sources said the CDA management had decided not to send this summary rather to follow the summary already sent to the ministry.

Latest summary sent by CDA to interior ministry on Sept 10 carrying 15 names of experts for submission to cabinet

“We have been observing this drama of making and receiving summaries for the last several years, but no serious action is being taken to get the summary approved from the federal cabinet to constitute the master plan commission,” said a deputy director of CDA.

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The issue was also taken up by National Assembly recently. In response to a question from PPP MNA Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi in his written response on October 25 had shared details of the proposed revision of the master plan.

The minister said the cabinet had constituted a commission to review the master plan in the light of directions issued by the IHC on April 19, 2018, after which the Ministry of Interior issued a notification for the commission on January 14, 2019, including its terms of reference. The commission, after detailed deliberations and working, prepared some documents/reports.

Subsequently, the CDA Board on December 2, 2019 adopted the interim report on the review of the master plan (2020-2040). The federal cabinet in its decision dated August 17, 2021 made second addition/alteration to the composition of the commission.

“The commission later suggested to hire the services of consultants to review the master plan and also revised the RFP/TORs document. After the change of the federal government, some members quit and the remaining stopped responding.”

Resultantly, the work of the commission was held up. The federal government was informed about it and summary for the constitution of the revised commission was forwarded to interior ministry on December 2, 2022, he added.

The cabinet in its meeting held on January 26, 2024 considered the summary regarding reconstitution of the commission and decided as under: “The Cabinet considered the summary titled ’reconstitution of the Federal Commission to review the Master Plan of Islamabad” submitted by the Interior Division and directed the division to deliberate on the matter holistically in consultation with the cabinet members and to then resubmit a well-thought out proposal for consideration of the cabinet which should include inter alia the option to engage private sector professionals of international standing.“

The minster in his reply stated that in compliance with the above decision, an amended summary was submitted to the interior ministry on February 16, 2024, by the CDA.

Sources said on September 10, the CDA sent another summary, reducing the numbers of members from 20 to 15. Several names of experts of previous panels were replaced with new ones. As per this summary, the CDA chairman will be the convener and new commission will have three urban planners (Aslam Mughal, Jahangir Sherpao, Khurram Farid). Executive Vice President Nespak Lahore Dawood Rana will be a member as a transportation planning specialist.

Meanwhile, the summary also carried the name of a retired bureaucrat of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) Syed Rizwan Mehboob as an environmentalist.

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The sources said Dr Naveed Iftikhar will be new member as urban economist while the name of a resident of Islamabad, Raja Changzeb Sultan — from village Shakarparian — had also been proposed as a representative of the villages in Islamabad. The names of Barrister Qasim Chauhan, lawyer of the Supreme Court, and Abdullah Khan (architect) were proposed as members.

In addition, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, Member Planning CDA, Member Environment, Director General Pakistan Environment Protection Agency and the Director General Planning will be ex-officio members of the proposed commission.

Doxiadis Associates, a Greece-based firm that prepared the master plan, had recommended its revision after every 20 years in accordance with the needs of the time. However, successive governments did not bother to make proper revision rather kept focusing on selective changes without any input from professionals, resulting in poor planning in the capital city. So far, 45 changes have been made to the original master plan by federal cabinets. On the other hand, Islamabad has been facing rapid growth in its population.

CDA’s Director Media Shahid Kiani said the civic agency had recently sent the summary to the government which will be approved by the competent authority.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2024