ISLAMABAD: Its seems instead of focusing on revision of the master plan of Islamabad, focus is being paid on making changes to the proposed panel of experts as once again some new names have been added to the proposed commission.During the last three years, the Capital Development Authority and the Ministry of Interior have changed the proposed panel several times, but the summary could not be approved by the federal cabinet for starting the much-needed revision of the master plan.

Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tararon December 13 had promised on the floor of Senate that the matter regarding formation of the master plan commission would be placed before the cabinet in the next meeting.

However, so far the summary has not been placed before the cabinet for approval.

Sources said that recently some new changes were made to proposed commission and soon the interior ministry will send this summary to theCabinet Division for placing it before the cabinet.

On the other hand, without getting any input from experts, so far over 50 changes have been made to Islamabad`s blueprint with the incumbent government also making six changes recently that excluded four Hseries sectors from Zone I of Islamabad (planned sectors area), ending their buffer zone and industrial status and converting them into residential sec-tors.

The sources said the number of the proposed commission`s members has now been increased from 15 to 20 with the addition of new names. The new names included Dr Abdul Waheed (head of urban and regional planning, National University of Sciences and Technology), ecological expert Dr Sher Jamal Khan (Nust), disaster risk management expert Mubashir Hussain and water resource specialist Dr Pervez Ahsan Khan. The director general building control CDA has also been included as the proposed member.

Interestingly, two relevant CDA officials director master plan and director general planning are no longer part of the new proposed commission.

According to the newproposal, if approved by the cabinet the commission will be headed by the CDA chairman as the convener. Besides the abovementioned five new members, the commission will have three urban planners (Aslam Mughal, Jahangir Sherpao and Khurram Farid). Nespak Lahore Executive Vice President Dawood Rana will be 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.

The sources said Dr Naveed Iftikhar will be member as urban economist while the name of a resident of Islamabad, Raja Changzeb Sultanfrom village Shakarparian has 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), are also the proposed members.

In addition, the deputy commissioner Islamabad, member planning CDA, member environment and the director general Pakistan Environment Protection Agency will be ex-officio members.

The revision of the master plan of Islamabad has been facing an inordinate delay.

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, over 50 changes have been made to the original master plan. On the other hand, Islamabad has been facing rapid growth in its population.

`The face of Islamabad has already been deshapedbecause ofthenegligence of CDA. Here, you will find dozens of slums inthe city area while thousands of unauthorised buildings have already been constructed in various parts of the city. So revision of the master plan is imperative,` said an official source.

Earlier, when the PTI government came to power in 2018,it announced that the master plan would be revised and the then prime minister Imran Khan also formed a commission.

However, the commission prepared an interim report in 2020 which was mostly related to building by-laws and regularisation of certain areas, including Banigala.

It left the revision of the master plan to an expert firm which could not be hired by CDA.

Meanwhile, the commission became inactive after completing its tenure and new commission could not be formed during the last three years.

Last month, Senator Kamran Murtaza took up the issue in Senate along with Senator Danesh Kumar. They stated that the summary for setting up of a new commission had been facing red-tape for the last two years and it should be approved on priority basis.

Concluding the debate, the law minister had said: `Summary would be presented before the cabinet in its next meeting.