Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A legal maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied” fits for the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as not only 117 inquiries regarding corruption, contravention and malpractices have been pending for years in the civic body, but the accused officers are still working on important posts and they can easily influence the said probes.

As per rules and regulations of the Authority, around two weeks are required to complete a departmental inquiry, but contrary to the rules, a large number of inquiries have been pending in the CDA for the last many years. The higher ups of the authority are looking unwilling and non serious to take strict action against their own employees.

The pending inquiries include illegal appointments, theft of official files, illegal grant of house building finance, negligence in duty, financial embezzlements, favouring illegal housing societies, theft of official vehicles, issuance of fake licences for temporary cabins and many more.

Sources inside the Authority have briefed that the said inquiries involved the corruption of millions of rupees, whereas, in some case the rights of the injured party directly suffered due to the negligence of the accused officer.

They briefed further that it was a routine at the civic body that the top management constitutes a committee to probe the irregularity and malpractices pointed out by either internal or external sources, but the process is left unattended to favour their own fellows. The cases linger for years as nobody takes them seriously.

The authority not only uses “probes and inquiries” as delaying tactics while fixing the responsibility of any irregularity or corruption, but also extends undue favour to its employees by allowing them to continue their jobs.

Continuation of service by the accused person on the same post or on another important seat is a move to directly allow him to influence the inquiry, which pose a question mark on the merit and transparency of the civic body.

For instance, a case of illegal re-designation of the post of Senior Auditor to the Admn Officer was constituted against Syed Safder Shah and Javed Masih, but these officers are currently working on the posts of Director Administration and Private Secretary to the Secretary CDA board.

Moreover, Syed Safder Shah is named not only in this case but several other inquiries are also pending against him.

Furthermore, cases revolving around dubious appointments of daily wage employees were initiated against Mrs. Najma Azhar along with others, but she is currently working as the Director Law in the civic body; whereas, Abdul Haq Barohi was also an accused in a probe, but he is still working in the planning wing of the CDA.

It is pertinent to mention here that the aforementioned cases are being taken on random basis from 177 pending cases as an example.

There are more than 200 officers, who are accused of corruption cases, but most of them are continuing their jobs on the same posts or on other posts of the same level.

While responding in general on the pending inquiries, the Deputy Director of Public Relations Directorate in the CDA, Malik Saleem Iqbal said: “The authority is committed for the early completion of enquiries and has issued notices to the officers appointed as inquiry officers for this purpose, but in some case due to the burden of work the inquiries have been prolonged.”

However, the Deputy Director avoided comment on why these accused persons were still enjoying the perks and privileges in the Authority inspite of grave charges of corruption against them.