ISLAMABAD: Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry has said that Islamabad is not being turned into a new province and that the federal capital’s status will remain unchanged.
Speaking during a private television programme, Chaudhry said there was no need for a chief minister in Islamabad. He said the head of the city could be called a mayor or lord mayor, but an empowered assembly would function under the local government and would have the authority to legislate.
Chaudhry said that no matter how empowered a local government system was, it could not serve as a substitute for provincial assemblies.
He said around Rs8 billion is collected annually from vehicles in Islamabad, while property and Capital Development Authority (CDA) taxes are collected separately.
The minister clarified that the government was not introducing any new tax in Islamabad. He argued that if the taxes already being collected were spent on Islamabad, nothing could stop the capital from becoming “Paris.”
Chaudhry stressed that Islamabad should have an empowered legislative assembly.
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Shafi Jan
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shafi Jan said that local government elections had not been held in Islamabad for several years.
He said the system would be “reset from Adiala,” apparently referring to Adiala Jail.
Jan said that if new provinces were to be created, the founder should be released so that he could take the nation into confidence.
He claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari was “living to make Bilawal Bhutto the prime minister” and criticised the Punjab government, saying that Punjab faced a threat from incompetence.
Jan said former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar was better than Maryam Nawaz and claimed that the PML-N would eventually “stand in line” to vote in favour of new provinces.
He said the government had time until March and warned that if an agreement was not reached, a new budget could not be presented. He also said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was becoming “a misfit.”
Jan further alleged that Maryam Nawaz had made fun of their martyrs and demanded that she apologise for her remarks.
