ISLAMABAD exists in something of a legal vacuum. Authority over the capital is split among several bodies, none answerable to its residents. First, there is an appointed chief commissioner with provincial-style powers under a presidential order from 1980. Second, there is a dormant metropolitan corporation. Third, and most visible in the life of the city, there is the Capital Development Authority, which plans, develops, zones, acquires and often demolishes, at will. Functions that elsewhere sit with several bodies gather here, answering upward to the federation and sideways to no one. This is the backdrop in which the new ICT Governance Model has been put forward for consultation.

Consider how Lahore is run. While the Lahore Development Authority is no model of probity, it cannot escape an elected layer above it. Its governing body is chaired by the chief minister and includes members of the Punjab Assembly and the city’s mayor. A provincial minister directly answers for its work. The discipline is imperfect, often ignored, but it exists. In Islamabad there is no equivalent design. The capital elects three members to the National Assembly, a body occupied with national business. No local government has sat since 2021.........

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