I harshly censure a corrupt capital city (9)
I believe the answer is:
islamabad
'capital city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'i harshly censure a corrupt' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
'a' is found in the answer.
'corrupt' could be 'bad' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'bad' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for islamabad that I've seen before include "capital city" , "Capital of Pakistan" , "Asian city" , "Pakistan's capital" , "city of Pakistan?" .)