Bad idea: making Islamabad a full province. Good idea: giving Islamabad province-like autonomy. Islamabad does not need provincial status. It needs provincial powers with municipal accountability.
Please do not make Islamabad another province. Make Islamabad Pakistan’s rst genuinely autonomous metropolitan government. There are proven models to follow. Brasília has its federal district. Buenos Aires is an autonomous city. Berlin is a city-state. Washington has the district of Columbia. Canberra has the Australian Capital Territory. One common principle: a national capital does not have to become an ordinary province in order to govern itself.
Islamabad does not need another assembly. Not another chief minister. Another secretariat. Another layer between the taxpayer and the service provider. Look closer: Islamabad does not need more government. It needs a better government.
I have been in Islamabad for the past three decades. Islamabad has a serious governance problem: authority is divided and accountability is up in the air. The CDA does one thing. The Metropolitan Corporation another. The interior ministry has its own powers. Federal ministries and agencies control still more. Remember: When ve institutions are responsible, very often no one is responsible.
Islamabad is 85 square miles and its 1.1 million residents have ve questions: Who is responsible for water? Who is responsible for sanitation? Who is responsible for transport? Who is responsible for land use? Who is responsible for schools?
Please give Islamabad an elected metropolitan government with authority over water, sanitation, roads, transport, schools, primary healthcare, waste management, building control, land-use planning, property taxation and environmental management.
Give Islamabad its own revenues. Give it clearly assigned expenditures. Give it measurable targets. Red alert: Then hold one government responsible.
The writer is an Islamabad-based columnist.
