Cloth bags beginning to become a capital sign

Islamabad is a city of bureaucrats, its roads overflowing with mighty vehicles flashing green number plates. But you are amiss if you think that this green is that green. No. Passengers of these vehicles in most cases spin files around them all through their lives and one day they realize they are not relevant anymore like silkworm. Greenery and cleanliness of the city doesn’t fit in what they spin because for these traits they have to wrestle themselves off from the comfort of armchair. That is it.

However, there is one bureaucrat who has ventured into this arena and has left his mark on every part of the city. On roads, in markets, and even in your comfort zones of social media, you cannot miss him because he will not let you.

He is the deputy commissioner, Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat. He earned this profile for his commitment to implementing the government initiative of making Islamabad greener and cleaner. “Not at any cost let them breach the botanical garden. I am fully on your back” are the instructions he was issuing to relevant staff on phone as I entered his office for an interview, which I thought of as a routine matter.

He told me that the district administration has mounted the move the make the city free of plastic bags, for which they are facing resistance. Asked about maltreatment of staff of Pak-EPA by managers of a known eatery in Blue Area, he said it would not have happened had the environment officers carried district administration people with them. The eatery has been fined and action has been taken against it, he said.

“Basically, this is Prime Minister’s vision to have clean and green Islamabad. And it is indeed very close to my heart and I am very serious about it as I live in Islamabad and bureaucracy is also centred here. Deputy commissioner is the prime representative of the government in the district. Tomorrow, I may be transferred to any other part of the country. But as long as I am around, I am committed to making Islamabad clean and green.” He said they want to change the lifestyle of the citizens. “Cotton bags are made available at nominal price because we want citizens to have them, but not for free. A soft drink company has agreed to provide cloth bags in markets. We are encouraging beggars and transvestites to sell these bags and earn because they are everyone’s need now,” he said. This idea seems to be odd but he has made it work, as is visible on city roads.

He said clean is a concept entailing many steps and we have taken all of them. He said the district administration has issued directives to all housing societies to install sewage and garbage treatment plants.

The city is going to have an all new landfill in Sangjani; hence, the citizens living around I-12 will be spared of the foul odour. However, when a landfill site is shifted to somewhere else, no government body takes care to clean it as the dumped plastic bags and other pollutants remain a source of degeneration of soil and water.

It is hoped that the deputy commissioner and other government functionaries will take measures to depollute and clean all the old landfills because they are causing diseases and people are dying. The city needs a professional and committed solid waste manager to keep it clean.

The waste managers the city has tried so far have ruined its rivers dumping solid waste on their beds, polluted air and water and got paid for their environmental crimes. They have turned clean water streams and River Sawan into a sewage drain. If the deputy commissioner, being the prime representative of the government, wants to see Islamabad clean, the first thing he needs to do is to dump all these environment criminals and bring about a change in the system.

Last but not the least, Mr Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat has trodden off the beaten path of officialdom and made social media a tool of effective governance. He has not let himself be buried under the mounds of files and has reached out to the masses, which is welcome. I believe that it is not the risk that careless young officers take and then pay the price for it because their performance does not match their public posturing. Because in my observation, he is anything but careless. Good luck Mr DC.