Chairman National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control Raja Khurram Nawaz has blamed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for Islamabad’s worsening urban planning and drainage problems, saying that the authority’s ad-hoc functioning has contributed to the city’s deterioration.
Speaking to a private media outlet, Nawaz said that the expansion of housing societies, unplanned settlements and encroachments on natural waterways had restricted the city’s drainage channels and contributed to water accumulation during heavy rainfall.
“More and more larger housing societies were built, new unplanned populations expanded, encroachments happened over the natural streams. Nobody looked at it, nobody thought that if we block the natural drains, not even a drop of water should stay because water flows downward due to gravity,” he said.
“So here, whenever you see water accumulating or spreading in any street or neighborhood, it means that we have constricted or encroached upon the natural water channels, which is causing all of this,” Nawaz added.
He said that the CDA had failed to maintain continuity in the administration and planning of the federal capital, pointing to frequent changes in its leadership.
“In my opinion, the biggest role in destroying this beautiful city belongs to the CDA, which was responsible for its administration. All of this is entirely the doing of the CDA,” Nawaz said.
“That is because, as you may have seen and as we have been observing, we repeatedly raise our voices inside the Assembly and within the Standing Committees. Every two years, a new chairman is appointed for this city, who takes an entire year just to understand how this city was basically built and what the different areas are,” he added.
Nawaz further claimed that some CDA chairmen complete their tenure without properly visiting Islamabad’s Union Councils.
“And many such chairmen, who have not even visited the Union Councils of Islamabad, complete their two or three-year tenure and leave,” he said.
He also criticised frequent changes within the CDA’s Planning Wing, stating that the officials responsible for planning also change regularly.
“Similarly, within the CDA, there is a Planning Wing whose job is to carry out planning. The Member Planning or whoever comes there as you know changes every other year. So, in this way, this institution is being run on an ad-hoc basis,” Nawaz said.
Heavy rain lashed Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Tuesday morning, flooding low-lying areas and raising water levels in Leh Nullah.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) recorded 104mm of rain in Saidpur, 157mm in Golra, 72mm in Bokra and 155mm at its site near H-8/2 by 8:20am. Kutchery received 74mm, Shamsabad 201mm, Pir Widhai 86mm and New Kattarian 186mm.
The water level in Leh Nullah also reached 29 feet at Kattarian and 23.5 feet at Gawalmandi, according to the PMD.
