Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The prevailing tug of war between the bureaucracy and the Mayor, Shaikh Ansar Aziz on the extension of CDA’s Member Planning Waseem Ahmed Khan, has taken another turn as the Establishment Division has withdrawn its own notification issued last Friday regarding the extension of the Member Planning for one more year.

According to details, the CDA Chairman Ansar Aziz had written a letter to the CADD last Friday to send Waseem Ahmed Khan back to his parent department.

He had also handed over the charge as the Member Planning and Design, to Asad Mehboob Kiani, a Grade 20 officer of CDA presently working as the Chief Metropolitan Officer (CMO) at the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad. The situation changed when in the late hours of the same day the Establishment Division also issued a notification contrary to Shaikh Ansar’s letter and extended the services of Waseem Ahmed Khan as the Member Planning and Design for one more year.

Waseem Ahmed Khan was originally appointed at the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) as Chief Metropolitan Planner in Grade 20, when he was appointed on deputation as the Member Planning and Design in the CDA, in August 2013. After the mayor’s defeat in the aforementioned tug of war, the Member Planning has again joined his office on Monday, but the situation changed when the Establishment Division withdrew its previous notification regarding Waseem’s extension on Tuesday.

The new notification stated that the last notification regarding the extension for one more year was hereby withdrawn ab-initio.

Although, the withdrawal of the last notification will defiantly add the perception that the mayor is a strong chairman as compared to the previous chairman, but he needs some senior advisers who can help him to run his day to day affairs.

After the removal of Waseem Ahmad Khan, there are four members missing from the CDA board, which is the highest decision making body in the CDA.

Currently only the Member Engineering and the Member Finance are working on their positions whereas the posts of the Member Estate, the Member Environment and the Member Admn are lying vacant.

As a routine, an officer of Grade 20 or above can be appointed as the Member CDA board on deputation for three years, which is further extendable for up to five years. The consent of the parent department and the borrowing organisation is mandatory for the appointment of an officer on deputation.

The issuance of notifications, one after the other shows the internal rifts between the strong bureaucracy and the Mayor of Islamabad. The reasons whatsoever behind this move, but it does pose a question mark on the seriousness of the government functionaries. The Deputy Director Public Relations, Malik Saleem Akhtar and the Mayor of Islamabad, Shaikh Ansar Aziz, were contacted several times to comment on the situation, but both were unavailable to respond to the new controversy.

The Planning & Design department is one of the important wings of the civic body as it undertakes the planning of all the urban and rural areas within the framework of the existing master plan. It analyses the housing needs of the growing city and responds according to the trends of the market.

The three-year term of Waseem Ahmed Khan expired on August 21, 2016, but he was quite hopeful that he would be successful to get an extension for one more year as a member in the Authority and his expectation became a reality when Establishment Division issued its first notification last Monday.

Waseem Ahmed Khan is generally considered as an honest government officer. His critics have only pointed out two of his weaknesses: that his decision-making power is low and that he tries to avoid signing cases that involve technicalities.