Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The mist of the Mayor’s personality being a powerful person in the capital city and the perception of his strong connections in the ‘House of Sharifs’ is shattering as the Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CA&DD) once again put his feet inside the civic body and decided to chair a meeting to review the progress on several projects.

The Minister of State, Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, was quite frequent to interfere in the matters pertaining to the civic agency before the appointment of the Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as chairman.

The civic authority was given under the control of Tariq’s ministry in November 2015 as previously the CDA was under the Cabinet Division.

During November 2015 to September 2016, the minister was visiting the CDA, inaugurating its projects and campaigns, inspecting ongoing projects and chairing meetings. The perception was very strong at that time that all matters were being run via the Ministry of CA&DD, but the same era ended when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed Mr. Aziz as the Chairman, CDA, on a look after charge.

Since the arrival of Mr. Aziz in the civic body, the intervention of the minister was almost ended and the perception of the mayor’s grip on the things dominated as he had not only become successful in getting control of the CDA but he had also defeated a powerful officer by repatriating him to his parent department.

In recent days, things have changed rapidly as the federal government not only appointed Yasir Perzada as a Member Administration in the CDA, but also removed the mayor’s close aide Sulyeman Waraich even without taking him into confidence. It was reported that the whole episode happened on the directions of the prime minister.

Now, surprisingly, the state minister has once again become active in the internal affairs of the civic body and decided to chair an urgent meeting within the Authority to review several projects, which raise the eyebrows of relevant circles.

The meeting will be held today at the CDA headquarters under the chair of Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and it was directed to the Chairman CDA, Members and Directors of concerned formations to attend the meeting.

The notice issued just one day before the meeting is conveyed through a special messenger, which stated; “The Minister of State for CA&DD has desired to chair a meeting to review the progress of ongoing projects.”

The notice listed 23 projects to be reviewed in this meeting including Transport System in Islamabad, Kuri Model Village, Park Enclave II, Nawaz Sharif Bypass, Signal free Islamabad Expressway, Carpeting of Simly Dam and Park Road, Construction of Khana Bridge, Manhttan High Rise Project, Issues of C-15 and C16, Provision of free Wifi, Rawal Lake Restaurant and Resort, Safari in Margallah Hills, Chairlifts, Shahdara Water Park, Saidpur Village, Margallah Town phase II project, Orchid Scheme Malot, CDA enforcement induction, Multipurpose club, service connections to unauthorised housing societies and camping ground for tourism.

“The mostly projects in the list are those which were being considered the minister’s projects and his all of a sudden entry shows that the current regime in the CDA is going to back foot again”, a senior officer of the Authority commented on the condition of anonymity.

Some officers believe that the mayor-led era is going to end as the appointment of a highly influential bureaucrat as member administration and the minister’s intervention is a move to make a check on Mr. Aziz.

However, Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz while talking to Daily Times rejected the impression and said; “meetings are a routine matter and earlier these were held in the Ministry of CA&DD, but now the minister wants to hold a meeting in the CDA secretariat so there is nothing unusual in this meeting.”