Zubair Qureshi
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) backed Mayor of Islamabad Sheikh Anser Aziz has submitted his resignation to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with immediate effect and without giving any reason for his resignation.
Though the mayor’s resignation is being seen a show of protest against the federal government’s recent interference in the affairs of the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI)—the first-ever elected local government of the federal capital—yet the mayor has refrained himself from giving any official or personal reason for his resignation.
A day earlier on Monday, the interior ministry had clipped the MCI’s powers by placing several of its directorates under the Capital Development Authority (CDA). These included environment wing (urban, regional and parks), the Directorate of Sanitation and City Sewerage; the Directorate of Water (bulk water supply and water and sewerage development); and the Directorate of Engineering (the Machinery Pool Organization, streetlights and market roads and maintenance).
Since coming to power in 2018, the ruling PTI government has made several attempts to dislodge the PML-N-majority MCI but never succeeded in doing so.
Submission of resignation some five months before expiry of his term (the mayor was sworn to office on Feb 15, 2016) has come as a surprise not only to his friends but also to his rivals as in the past the mayor had foiled the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) at least two such moves of stripping him of the office. Recently, in May this year, he was given a stay order from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) when the federal government suspended him from office and introduced a local government commission to run the affairs of the city.
The government had suspended him for a period of 90 days over charges of corruption and handed the powers to MNA from Islamabad Ali Nawaz Awan who was also heading the commission but the IHC reinstated the Mayor to his office declaring the government’s move illegal.
In his hand-written resignation letter to the ECP dated October 1, 2020 the Mayor of Islamabad submitted he was stepping down from his office with immediate effect.
While talking to Pakistan Observer, Deputy Zeshan Naqvi also expressed his surprise at the sudden resignation of the mayor saying only a day earlier (Monday) the Mayor had inaugurated a water filtration plant.
“We were going to move a writ in the IHC against placing the MCI’s major wings under the CDA control and were very much optimistic that we would get relief as in the past the courts had been turning down the federal government’s unlawful acts,” said Naqvi.
When asked if he was able to talk to the Mayor as his cell phone was continuously switched off, he said he too tried to contact but could not get through. However, Zeshan Naqvi expressed his resolve that he along with other members of the MCI would move a petition in the IHC against shifting of directorates from MCI to CDA.
