ISLAMABAD: The administrative control of Capital Hospital has once again been placed under the Capital Development Authority (CDA), it was decided by the Authority’s board in its meeting held on Friday. The board has also approved the auction of 26 commercial plots situated at lucrative positions of the city. The 250-beds hospital is fully equipped with the latest machines and providing modern medical & surgical facilities to the patients. The hospital provides free treatment to the CDA employees, their families and dependent parents whereas it also entertains the general public, but only in the case of emergencies. This hospital had been controlled by the CDA exclusively since its establishment in 1981 as a small day care Medical Centre. After the establishment of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) as a result of the local bodies’ elections in 2015, the hospital along with several other formations of the civic Authority, had been transferred to the MCI from the control of the CDA. The decision to place the hospital under the control of the MCI was criticised from the first day by the employees of the CDA as they were of the view that this hospital is for the Authority’s employees. A source inside the civic body briefed that the administrative control of Capital Hospital was returned to the CDA because the newly born MCI was unable to bear the heavy expenses incurred on the hospital as it was already suffering due to shortage of funds. While responding on the aforementioned decision, the General Secretary Employees Union of the CDA, Chaudhry Yaseen, welcomed the move to bring back the hospital to the civic body. He also demanded to give back the control of some other formations including the CDA School, the MPO Workshop, the “Kachi Abadi Cell” etc. He said: “The Mayor is not only for the CDA, but for the whole city. If he wants to control hospitals and schools then he should take the control of all educational and health institutes working in the federal capital instead of grabbing our assets.” Meanwhile, the CDA board has approved the auction of 26 commercial plots situated at lucrative positions of the city. The auction will be held in the last week of November. The board has also approved the allotment of a plot for the construction of a head office of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) at Sector H-10 in Islamabad. Furthermore, the board has discussed an agenda item related to the conversion of 517 daily paid/Muster Roll employees into daily wages employees, but could not conclude it. The Mayor of Islamabad, Shaikh Ansar Aziz, sought a detailed report in this regard and directed to present the matter again during the next meeting of the board. Muster roll employees are those sessional workers which the civic authority uses at the time of need to fulfil some special tasks and assignments. They are not the permanent payable employees of the CDA. In 2011, the board had decided to convert those Muster roll employees in to daily wages workers, who have completed three years’ service at that time. Under that decision, around 1722 employees became daily wagers, but 517 were left behind as they had not completed three years’ service in hand. Now, these remaining employees want the conversion of their service by using the same decision of the board as the three-year service in daily wages becomes a sort of a guaranty to become a permanent employee at the Authority. A source inside the CDA revealed that the Member Administration of the CDA wanted to repeal the previous decision of the board, but the intervention of Mayor, Shaikh Ansar Aziz, saved the future of these employees for the time being.