Interview with Hamza Shafqaat
Hamza Shafqaat is the Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad. An engineer by profession, he is now leading the Islamabad administration in an unusually dynamic manner with a focus on digitizing several administrative issues. Matrix Mag recently interviewed him for his perspectives on challenges to conventional governance, his IT initiatives and the clean and green Islamabad campaign.
Matrix Media (MM): We have been witnessing a lot of initiatives you have been taking for the past couple of years in Islamabad. Could you please tell us about the initiatives you have taken related to Information Technology (IT) and how beneficial they are?
Hamza Shafqaat (HS):
As I am a computer system engineer myself, I believe all technological interventions bring about improvements in one way or the other. The very first thing we did was that we introduced biometric attendance system for our staff that helped in the improvement of the attendance. Secondly, we introduced NADRA verification and thumb verification in the Excise Department’s sale and purchase matters that decreased the litigation to about 90%. Prior to that, when a person would transfer a car, another would claim that it is his/her. Then another would claimed that it is his/her car, which was stolen. This whole issue has now been solved with a minute technological intervention.
In addition, another intervention we did in the Excise Department is that we signed a MoU with National Bank that allow people to pay tax in any branch of NBP all over Pakistan in order to avoid inconvenience of coming over to our office. There are 1,200,000 cars registered in Islamabad, so it was a big challenge to handle 1,200,000 people who were coming to pay their token tax at our office. We successfully overcame it with this intervention.
We also made thumb verification mandatory for property transfer to avoid frauds. Now we are computerizing all land records and it is our plan to digitalize all the land in Islamabad within a year.
We connected people of the rural areas via local facilitation centers with our main office where they can get their domiciles, arms and driving licenses. We have also launched an app for price control by the name of Durust Daam through which people can check the prices and also order things for home delivery on government rates. I believe all these technological interventions have not only facilitated people but have also brought transparency and good governance.
MM: You talked about NADRA and thumb verification in the excise department that, I think, is a revolutionary step. Do you have data that can prove that litigation has decreased by 90%?
HS: Yes, we do have it. We had 400+ cases registered from 2014-2016, while this year, there is not even a single case related to excise. We made thumb verification easier by signing a MoU with NADRA where anyone who wants to transfer a car can verify in their local NADRA offices. Now they don’t need to come here from Lahore, Karachi or Quetta etc. This not only saved our time and resources, but of the people too. This also confirms that the real owner is selling his/her car, which significantly decreased the litigation cases. Almost all litigation cases were related to the transfer of the car. Now the issue is solved.
MM: You are also talking about computerizing all lands, which I think is not an easy job. How would you deal with the land record officials (Patwari) and district officers (Tehsildar)?
HS: This is really an evolutionary project. The edge we have here is that Panjab has already done the hard work of making a system which we can borrow. Moreover, the land of Islamabad is no more than a Tehsil of Rawalpindi. So scanning or digitizing is not an issue. The big hurdle is the revenue department which will obviously become irrelevant once everything is digitalized. But the biggest hurdle is the housing societies and land mafia. Because once land is computerized, no one will be able to sell more than what they actually own and all land related issues will be resolved. They are making a lot of hurdles by filing writs against the project and vilification against me. I had already informed the government of these types of issues. Thankfully, the government is standing by me.
MM: How will a common man get access to the land records?
HS: There are 700,000 land owners in Islamabad. Once all the data is uploaded into our software, people would be able to check the data online and through an app. This will be done within six months.
MM: People of Islamabad have been complaining about your campaign against encroachments. You definitely did a commendable job. Do you think you did justice to those unprivileged and poor people who borrowed money to run a hut to earn for their families?
HS: No doubt that anti-encroachment campaign is a very brutal campaign, but the 90% area we cleared in Islamabad was the forest area that needed to be recovered, either from privileged or unprivileged. Other areas, like Quaid-i-Azam University and GT road, needed to be cleared because they were blocking canal ways. Still, there is 20,000 kanal land under encroachment. But the government says not to bother poor people. So we haven’t cleared areas such as the Kachi Abadi in Saidpur village and around the village near Bari Imam and the Christian colonies. We haven’t been hard towards the poor people. As far as the huts are concerned, they have been growing. There are 400 legal huts in Islamabad, but in actual there are 800, which are being sold one to another.
MM: CDA must be involved in all this.
HS: Yes the lower staff is involved and cases have been registered against about 70 people. 15-20 people have been arrested and suspended too. But still, we cannot justify it if one occupies the green belt, constructs a hut and sells groceries in a Markaz, while others pay rents in millions. In such cases we take sensible steps not to hurt the poor. We demolished wedding halls owned by millionaires on Kashmir Highway and plazas on GT road.
MM: But still there are complaints that hospitals, guest houses and schools in residential areas owned by rich people who can hire expensive lawyers have not been touched.
HS: Court has ordered a stay on schools and has asked the government to make a policy to not endanger the future of the students. As far as guest houses are concerned, there has been a debate whether the guest houses are residential or not. While professionals like doctors or lawyers are allowed by the CDA that they can utilize 15% of their houses for their professional purposes, but need to get permission from CDA first. So I think it is not true that we don’t look into the rich.
MM: But still there are clinics being run at home in F-8 and F-7. Can we say that their lawyers are strong enough to defy any orders?
HS: No. They exploit the laws which provide some sort of relaxations to the professionals. But we will try not to allow such impression.
MM: What is being done about Clean and Green Pakistan?
HS: There are two parts of the project. One is cleaning the environment. And the green part is to increase plantation and forestation in Islamabad. In 2019, we planted one million trees which had 50% survival rate. There is an issue of termites in Islamabad. The planted plants are usually eaten by the animals. We have asked Islamabad Chamber to donate Rs. 5,000 each so that the plants can be barbed wired and watered regularly. This time we will focus more on plants’ survival than just planting.
MM: What is its follow up mechanism?
HS: As mentioned before, this time we focused more on plants’ survival and have taken the housing societies and other organizations on board to look after the plants and give us reports time to time.
MM: It seems like you have the mission to make Islamabad a smart and model city. Amidst the bureaucracy and political hurdles, are you sure you will be able to accomplish your mission?
HS: I am sure I would be able to achieve this. The land record project would be a game changer. 70-80% land related issues will be resolved with it. Secondly, we have launched an app by the name of City App, in which we have integrated all the public utility services, such as getting domicile certificates, driving license, paying taxes etc. We are also working on establishing a call center where people can get all the information through calls.
MM: You have been over receptive on Twitter. Why is that so?
HS: Yes, I get over receptive on Twitter. We don’t get orders less than 1,000 because the project won’t be feasible then. We not only aim to satisfy the public, but also have to delight them so they can trust us. I even do things which do not come in my domain just to facilitate the public and restore peoples’ trust on government services.
MM: There is a complaint against you that you allowed two opposite sides to hold demonstrations at the same place on Aurat March. What would you say about it?
HS: We issued only one NOC and that too to Women Democratic Front to whom we also provided security. But after this, the religious groups came over and asked for permission. We didn’t provide them with NOC, but we had to handle them. We had asked them to wind up before 4 o’clock, but they didn’t. We knew this will create a law and order situation. The incident happened when they were about to leave. Any lack of duty will be strictly handled after inquiry.
MM: What drives you when it comes to environment? Ever since the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) has come to government, it is said that a lot of officials are trying to align themselves with the agenda Prime Minister Imran Khan has pronounced. Would you agree with that?
HS: I would partially agree with that. It is true that bureaucrats always work and try to align themselves with whatever the policy of the government is. And we have seen this happen historically. In General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, everybody used to wear such clothes and pretended that they are very religious. This is how the bureaucracy works. This is somehow inherited in the system. But having said that, it is true that the PM is the main driving force of all these environmental initiatives. But as an engineer and as a person who has read, I know myself that the survival of our country is only possible if we take initiatives to control our environment. Pakistan is among the top five countries which is going to get hit because of global warming. Our whole economy depends on our environment. Our agriculture system depends upon our environment. So if the civil servants do not realize this and the bureaucracy does not realize that our survival is only possible in controlling the factors that are destroying our environment, then I think, we will not be able to work.
In addition, on my side, I have already told you about the PM’s initiatives. Secondly, the government of Pakistan has already signed agreements, which are called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). And one of the prime goal that we have to achieve in the next 10-15 years is environmental stability and going ahead with green initiatives. We have to come up with projects which are sustainable and do not put a lot of burden on the environment.
MM: Islamabad must be producing a lot of waste. How are we disposing that?
HS: Unfortunately, there were no landfill sites in Islamabad. Initially and temporarily, I-8 sector was being used and before that sector D-12 was being used for waste disposal. This year, we have come up with a proposal in which we have identified a piece of land in Sangjani, near the Grand Trunk (GT) road, which was previously being used for querying purposes. So, it is an engineered site with a lot of depth in it. We have identified that site and the project has been approved which is now pending with the Environmental Protection Agency. Once they give us a go ahead, Metropolitan Corporation (MC) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) will have a full and final site for waste disposal in Islamabad. Temporarily, we are dumping that in uninhabited areas near I-12 sector. But obviously, I-12 is a residential sector and we have to clear that site. Therefore, I think in the next six months, the Sangjani site will get approved and all the trash will eventually go there. We are also planning to set up two plants near Arid Agriculture University. Therefore, whoever wants to convert that waste into energy, can work on it.
MM: Landfills are a very old concept. Don’t you think the unsorted waste can also lead to a lot of contamination underground?
HS: That is again another challenge for us that our garbage is not being sorted out at the primary level. In advanced countries, they have three types of dustbins. One is for organic waste, another is for plastic waste and so on. Unfortunately, in Pakistan we have not been able to attract investors to invest in this area. The Sanitation Department of CDA presently has a lot of incapacity issues. But we are attracting people. We have even approached the Chinese government to offer us some consultancy on this and help us deal with this trash system. In Panjab, they have solid waste management companies which are doing very good work in Lahore and Rawalpindi. But that project is too expensive which we cannot afford in Islamabad. So I will still bank on the landfills sites initially, and hopefully we will work on sorting the garbage issue.
