Who owns Islamabad, its problems and its privileges?

Life swings from hope to despair like a pendulum in the post-COVID-19 era. Elected representatives of the people are refreshing their pledges of serving their electorate better than before and making new pledges of pulling together to get out of this hard time everywhere.

But Islamabad is telling a different story. It may not be far removed from reality to state that it is a city of migrants. ‘Islamabad deserted’ is the most clichéd headline we see in newspapers on Eids and other long holidays. But this is not the case at present. At present people are confined to their houses not knowing where to go.

Private employers have shut their doors in most cases, leaving their employees in the lurch; nowhere to fall back on and no career to pursue. Domestic workers are stranded as they want to go back to their hometowns instead of languishing in their settlements in Islamabad. But they cannot move back.

Politicians from all over the country make a beeline to Islamabad being the power centre and wash their dirty linen out in the open here. The people of Islamabad watch the game of non-stop blames and counter-blames by politicians of different parties being played out in their midst. They see their representatives dilating on all regional and global issues but those of their electorate.

Fortunately, both Rawalpindi and Islamabad have the best of administrative teams, tireless, committed and professional. Friday was a challenge. Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO) Dr Tajik Sohail Habib told this scribe that they had taken ulema in confidence to take safety precautions. Mosques in Rawalpindi made sure that worshippers maintain safe distance from each other during prayers. Dr Tajik is known to mobilize communities to keep order in the region. Earlier, he used to convey messages for child protection and gender equality through mosques during Juma congregations.

I remember he told me in a meeting that he is not interested in inflated accounts of what is going wrong. “I am interested in solutions. Problems are there and we know them. What we need is solutions,” he told this scribe. However, in Islamabad, religious-political parties are hard to manage for the district administration. Lal Masjid arranged Jumma congregation despite the ICT administration’s best efforts to stop them.

“Using force is not advisable as the Lal Masjid cleric uses female students as a shield. We have registered three FIRs against him for this violation,” Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat told ‘The News’.

“We are constantly engaging with him. We have issued him written warnings. But the cleric is pushing us to limits,” he said. He also said that the people who participated in the Jumma congregation are equally responsible and they did it knowing the risks well. But leaving this complex issue to ICT administration is injustice. The administration is doing more than what is desired of it and now is the time to acknowledge their hard work. The Lal Masjid issue has a political solution. Dr Tahir Malik, of NUML, told ‘The News’ that dilemma is that politicians from outside are doled out seats of Islamabad. “They do not have any interest in the city so we do not see them around enough. Someone who was not able to win the local government elections from here is made the advisor on capital affairs. You can imagine what his calibre is and why these problems are swelling,” he said. Islamabad needs its representatives to own this city, its problems and its privileges.