September 13, 2002	Friday	Rajab 5, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The interior ministry has directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to retire all such employees who have completed 25 years of service and those involved in corruption, a well-informed source told Dawn on Thursday.

The source said under the ministry’s directives, about 159 employees were to be retired, of which some 39 would face forced retirement due to their involvement in any malpractice.

The National Accountability Bureau has received more than 20 cases against the CDA officials, who were allegedly involved in corruption and misappropriation of the authority’s funds.

Earlier, it was decided that rightsizing in the CDA should be deferred till the formation of local government (LG) setup in the capital.

The source said, although, the authority had completed the lists of surplus staff and those who would be subjected to forced retirement, the final decision in this regard would be made by the new LG setup.

He said some 650 employees were declared surplus and they would be sent to the surplus pool. According to the authority’s rightsizing plan, the directorates of health, land and deputy commissioner would be handed over to the Islamabad Capital Territory administation, he added.

It is learnt that no new recruitment has been made in the CDA for the last five years, as a result of which some 2,000 posts are vacant.

Meanwhile, rents of Federal Lodges will not be increased in the near future, a senior official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Dawn on Thursday.

The official said no government department could decide the rents of the lodges as these were a property of the National Assembly and it would be left to the future cabinet to take a decision in this regard.

He said the CDA was responsible for providing all services to the inhabitants of the lodges. However, the authority nor any other department was concerned with the rents of the lodges.

“The rent of each lodge is stated to be Rs4,000. However, such kind of accommodation in private sector in Islamabad is available at a cost of over Rs35,000,” he said.

Responding to a question about the dues of army officials who had left the lodges, the official said all dues of army officials had been paid to the CDA.

He said some 185 parliament lodges had so far been vacated and the remaining 31 would also be vacated within a week.

The official said a total of 212 parliament lodges had been occupied by the officials of different government departments.

He said the lodges were being vacated for the parliamentarians who would be elected in the forthcoming elections.

He said renovation work of existing lodges had been started for which a sum of Rs5 million was allocated.

Well-furnished parliament lodges were under the use of army officials, senior bureaucrats and influential people. However, most of the army officials who had occupied the lodges since military takeover, had vacated them, but had been occupied by other people.

Talking about the extension of the lodges, he said a sum of Rs150 million had been allocated for this purpose.

He said some 100 additional lodges were being constructed, increasing the total number to 320.

“The CDA will try its best to complete the construction of additional lodges to accommodate parliamentarians before the start of sessions of both the National Assembly and Senate,” he added.

“The list of people who want to have accommodation in parliament lodges has increased to over 400 aspirants,” the CDA official said.