Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: In the prevailing culture of inefficiency, corruption and malpractices, the biggest challenge for the newly appointed CDA Chairman Shaikh Ansar Aziz is to build his own team as it is quite necessary to overcome the bulk of problems being faced by the civic authority.

The appointment of the Mayor of Islamabad Shaikh Ansar Aziz as Chairman CDA, was all of a sudden and the bureaucracy inside the authority was not well-prepared for it and even the Mayor as it appears is also looking giving the signs of having been uncalculated in this regard.

He assumed the charge on September 7 and the very next day he reshuffled dozens of the Authority’s employees, which created an impression that he was going to rearrange the whole set-up inside the civic body, but the following events proved that the mayor had no clear plan of action to fully hold the Authority.

As a result of his premature move of transfers and postings on a huge scale, a large number of officers are trying to escape from the civic body, especially officers working on deputation.

For instance, the staff officer to the Chairman CDA, Ejaz Bajwa, left CDA and joined NHA after his transfer to Labour Relations Directorate, whereas, the former DDG Land and Rehabilitation Abdul Islam Shah, is also preparing to seek a new appointment outside the Authority after failing in his efforts to rescue his previous position within the Authority.

Furthermore, Naeem Dar, who was appointed as the Director Law, left the Authority by opting for a long leave. Director Technical Noman Shaikh and Director Sector Development Tahir Mehmood also went on leave.

Sources inside the authority briefed Daily Times that around 60 per cent deputation officers declined to assume their new duties and lobbied for new appointments in other government departments outside the CDA.

A director while commenting on the condition of anonymity said: “The deputation officers only prefer to work on lucrative positions in the CDA and enjoy the appointments above than their actual grades; whereas, they refuse to work on less important posts as their sole motive to join the civic body is to make money.”

On the other side, the biggest challenge for the Mayor of Islamabad Shaikh Ansar Aziz, is to maintain his writ in the Authority, which is impossible without a team of loyal and professional officers.

Currently, the mayor cannot take any policy decision involving the CDA board as the posts of the Member Environment, the Member Estate and the Admn are lying vacant.

Sources inside the CDA informed that the Chairman CDA is going to replace the Member Engineering, Shahid Sohail, with Asad Mehboob Kiani, who is currently working as Chief Metropolitan Officer.

They further briefed that the mayor wants to find out the members within the Authority, but it is a difficult task as there are only three Authority: Shaikh Sulman, Sanaullah Aman and Shahid Sohail. If the mayor appoints any Grade 19 officer as a member then he will face the criticism of violating merit, but if he goes for the second option to bring members from the Establishment Division’s pool then it will be difficult for him to run the Authority according to his vision and to take all powers in one hand.