Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Mayor of Islamabad, Shaikh Ansar Aziz has failed to wisely manage his cards as one of his close aide Suleyman Khan Waraich has lost the office of Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) just after a few days of his removal from the post of Member Administration of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Mr. Suleyman had joined the CDA on deputation and he had been appointed as Member Administration on look after charge while he was also granted the additional charge of CMO by Mayor Shaikh Ansar.

He was facing criticism since his appointment as it is the mandate of the Federal Government to appoint members of the CDA Board, but he was given the charge with the orders of the Human Resource Directorate of the civic body.

On last Friday, he was replaced with Yasir Perzada on the post of member administration by the Establishment Division and now just after two working days the Commerce Ministry has also reversed the deputation of Mr. Waraich and asked him to report in his parent department.

Mr. Suleyman was considered a close aide of the Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz, but he could not adjust in the system due to his personality and a large number of controversies surrounded him form day first.

He was accused by some real estate investors for forcing local people of the revenue estate of Shah Allah Ditta to sell their land at throwaway prices to his private property firm Tri Quest Limited, but the allegations were strongly rejected by him and declared as a move to pressurise him by local land grabbers.

A well-placed source inside in the CDA briefed:”Besides several other things, the last nail in the coffin of Suleyman’s journey with civic body was an inquiry, which he had initiated against irregularities in the allotment of plots at Sector C-15.” The source further said: “A very influential government officer, who has huge stakes in Sector C-15 directly complained to the prime minister and managed his removal from the civic body.”

Whatsoever the reasons behind the decision, but one thing is quite clear that the departure of Mr. Suleyman from the civic body and the MCI is a setback for Mayor Shaikh Ansar as currently he is left with only one person of his own choice in the CDA Board, Mr. Asad Mehboob Kiani, the Member Planning.

The Member Engineering Shahid Sohail, Member Finance Dr. Fahad Aziz and Member Administration Yasir Perzada are the direct appointees of the Federal Government.

Now, on one side, the mayor would now have to face three full time members in the board meetings at the same time and finding a reasonable officer for the post of CMO is also a challenge for him.

Meanwhile, the workers union led by Chaudhry Yasin has also decided to file a petition against the mayor at the Islamabad High Court to launch a contempt proceeding against him as he has issued a notification to place several departments, workers and assets of the CDA under the control of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) by violating the orders of honourable court in the matter.

While talking to Daily Times, the General Secretary of the Workers Union, Chaudhry Yasin, said: “We are going into the contempt proceedings as the court had ordered to stop the devolution process till the agreement of all stakeholders on one solution.”

He marked the recent notification issued with the signatures of the Director Staff of the Chairman, Asif Shah Jahan, as a violation of the court’s interim order in the case.