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Senators challenge rulers of Islamabad

Posted on: Wed October 26, 2011

ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: A Senate standing committee that met Tuesday to discuss mainly the mosques and madressahs in Islamabad ended up instead challenging the Ministry of Interior`s control over the city`s administration.

It was all the more surprising that PPP Senator Nayyar Bukhari, leader of the house in the Senate and a member of its Standing Committee on Interior, threw down the gauntlet to the ministry headed by his powerful party colleague, Rehman Malik.

"Constitutionally and legally the federal capital comes under the control of president and not the interior ministry. But the city is being run through a section officer of the interior ministry," he fumed.

No official of the interior ministry was present in the meeting to respond to the tricky question who should be running the city affairs.

When asked by Dawn after the meeting whether it was his party`s line, Senator Bukhari said it was his "personal view not PPP`s" that Islamabad should be under the control of the president.

"Under the Eighth Amendment the federal capital comes directly under the control of the president. I think we need to deliberate on the matter. That is why I asked the committee`s head (Senator Talha Mehmood) to convene a meeting with the officials of law ministry and the attorney general to reach a logical conclusion," said Mr Bukhari who represents Islamabad in the Senate.

In the standing committee meeting, Chief Commissioner Islamabad Tariq Pirzada stated that according to the rules of business the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration was an attached department of the interior ministry. "The committee should decide the issue. It is the job of the parliament. Not every matter should be sent to the judiciary," the chief commissioner said.

At this, Senator Talha Mehmood directed him to prepare a detailed report on legal status of ICT administration and present it at the next meeting of the committee.

Absence of the interior ministry from Tuesday`s meeting angered the committee members so much that the issue of administrative control of Islamabad overshadowed the entire agenda. They asked the chair to submit a privilege motion in the parliament in this regard.

Senator Bukhari however wanted the matter should be raised with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Senator Haji Adeel of ANP noted that the ministry officials stayed away from the meeting although it was rescheduled for Tuesday at the request of Interior Minister Rehman Malik to enable them to attend.

The meeting did not discuss the status of mosques and madressahs in the city as the chief commissioner advised that the matter was sensitive and be discussed in camera.

It is said 153 madressahs, or seminaries, exist in the urban area of the federal capital, all declared "unauthorised" as they were built without approval.

"I suggested the committee discuss the mosques and madressahs in a closed-door session because it relates to sectarian issues," the chief commissioner told Dawn .

The main item on the agenda of the meeting was to ascertain the exact number of mosques under the administrative control of the Auqaf, criteria/procedure for construction of new mosques, the role/responsibility of local administration in payments of utility bills and reasons of non-release of utility bills arrears of mosques by the ministry of finance for Auqaf department. The arrears amounted to Rs9 million electricity and Rs5.5 million Sui gas charges.

Instead of talking about the main agenda the committee spent most of its time discussing the appointment of revenue staff and the housing societies in the federal capital.

Inside sources said some members of the committee grilled the officials of the Revenue Department, including Tehsildars and Patwaris, in an apparent attempt to pressurise them to settle their own land issues.

The committee formed a sub-committee to look into the affairs of the private housing societies and another on appointment of Patwaris in Islamabad.

Courtesy: Dawn Media Group