The first ever mayor and deputy mayors of Islamabad were likely to get powers in the few next week after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured them of support.
After transfer of powers, almost 12,000 employees and 13 complete and 17 partial departments of the Capital Development Authority would work under the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation.
The dispute between bureaucracy and a federal minister have delayed the process of transferring powers to the mayor and deputy mayors. The notification of the successful candidates was issued four months ago after successful conduct of local government elections. Since then, the elected representatives have been without financial and administrative powers. According to sources, recently the elected representatives have started lobbying to get full powers to make the local government system functional. As part of their lobbying, they also approached the prime minister, who assured them of full cooperation and support.