Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad has fully digitised its municipal licence services, removing manual processing steps entirely and allowing applicants to secure permits and complete payments online without needing to visit the corporation’s offices in person. The initiative, developed in collaboration with the National Information Technology Board, covers a range of municipal permissions including outdoor dining permits and signage or display board permissions, alongside other licence categories that previously required applicants to navigate paper based processes at physical counters
The digitisation effort forms part of the federal government’s broader Digital Pakistan vision and is intended to make municipal services faster, more accessible, and less dependent on in person interaction between citizens and government staff. An official from the Directorate of Municipal Administration described the change as a significant shift for Islamabad’s business community, which had previously been required to work through manual procedures to obtain the various municipal permissions and licences needed to operate legally within the city. Under the newly digitised system, applicants can now submit their requests and complete the associated payments entirely online, moving these transactions away from the cash based procedures that had characterized the process in the past.
Chief Officer MCI and Director DMA Dr. Anam Fatima, who led the digitisation drive, noted that birth and death certificate registration had already been shifted onto a digital platform prior to this latest expansion, and that licence services have now been added alongside those existing digital offerings. She described the change as removing the need for citizens and businesses to visit the DMA in person to obtain a licence, calling it the most significant convenience the digitisation effort delivers for applicants who previously had to set aside time for in person visits to complete what are often routine administrative tasks.
In a separate development connected to the same office, Dr. Anam Fatima, a BS-18 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service who had been serving on deputation at the Capital Development Authority and MCI, was transferred on Tuesday, with her services placed at the disposal of the Ministry of Interior for further posting within the Islamabad Capital Territory administration. According to sources familiar with the matter, she is expected to be posted as Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), a move that comes shortly after she oversaw the completion of the municipal licence digitisation project described above.
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