In a significant development, the city authorities made a preliminary agreement on Thursday to transfer municipal responsibilities for two sectors of Islamabad to the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB).
During a meeting chaired by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) board, the members approved a proposal to hand over municipal functions for the entire H-14 sector and a portion of H-13 to the RCB.
It is noteworthy that the RCB has laid claim to several sectors in Islamabad, including I-12, G-13, G-14, H-13, H-15, and I-14. The RCB argues that these areas were under its jurisdiction before the establishment of Islamabad, citing historical reasons.
The dispute can be traced back to 1961 when the federal government, in the process of shifting the capital from Karachi to Islamabad, established the CDA as an institution and defined its municipal boundaries. However, these boundaries inadvertently encroached upon areas that traditionally belonged to the RCB.
The Cantonments Act of 1924 stipulates that any changes to the limits or boundaries of a cantonment must be preceded by a notification from the federal government. In the case of the RCB, no such notification has been issued, according to a statement from the RCB.
The disputed area comprises approximately 2,509 acres, and survey records from 1964, 1977, 1980, and 1985 held by the RCB indicate that it should fall within the board’s jurisdiction.
The ongoing jurisdictional disputes have resulted in legal cases that are currently pending in both the high court and district courts of Islamabad. All parties involved have contested the municipal boundaries of the RCB.
To resolve this matter, numerous meetings have taken place between the CDA and RCB since 2017, culminating in an agreement that the boundaries would remain unchanged.
However, the RCB would have the authority to enforce its municipal bylaws in H-14 (primarily housing army installations) and on 20% of H-13, situated near military installations, without claiming ownership of these sectors.
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