KARACHI, Oct 28: The government of Sindh, through a letter dated Oct 25, has upheld the decision taken by the housing and town planning department regarding devolution of the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), which had become controversial after a letter issued by the services department on Oct 12.

Secretary services and general administration Ghulam Sarwar Khero has written a letter to secretary of the town planning department regarding devolution of the KBCA to the city government. Referring to the letter of Oct 12 it says: “it is clarified that the notification/correspondence mainly related to powers of the chief controller of buildings (CCB) and it has nothing to do with the notification already issued by the house and town planning department.”

A high-level meeting with chief secretary K.B. Rind in the chair was held on Oct 25 to resolve the matter pertaining to devolution of the KBCA. The meeting was attended by ACS Shehzado Shaikh, local bodies’ secretary Aslam Sanjrani, City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, director-general of the Sindh Kutcha Abadis Authority Tasmeen Siddiqui, Ali Akber Shah of the town planning department and DCO Shafiqur Rehman Paracha.

The meeting decided to upheld the decision taken by the housing and town planning department. The first two notifications highlighted the structure of the KBCA at the city-level under the EDO (works and services), while chief control of buildings would become the district officer (building control) in services and works department.

These notifications also pointed out the number of officials to be posted in the city and each of the 18 Towns, while the third notification issued by the house and town planning department on Oct 9 was directed to the KBCA authorities about the names of officers to be posted in different Towns.

On Oct 9, the HTP department had devolved the authority to the city government and Towns under the EDO (works & services), but on Oct 12, secretary services Ghulam Sarwar Khero wrote a letter to the HTP department secretary, asking him to withdraw the correspondence.

However, the matter was interpreted in a different way by Brig A.S. Nasir, who issued instructions in the KBCA that the Authority was not being devolved.

Responding to the latest move by the Sindh government, EDO (works & services) Brig Zaheer Qadri said that though the KBCA was being devolved to the city government but the committee to assess its assets did not contain any member from the city government.

According to sources in the KBCA, the three members of the committee are additional secretary local government, special secretary finance and the CCB who has been addressed as DO (building control) in the official letters.

Brig Zaheer Qadri, who is also the last director-general of the defunct KDA, said that he intended to hold a meeting with the City Nazim in this regard as salaries of employees of four departments of the defunct KDA — traffic engineering bureau, master plan department, design bureau and the KMTP — were provided by the KBCA.

The interest of employees must also be kept in consideration during the devolution process, he added, while a senior official of the HTP department told this news agency that it was clear that the KBCA had been devolved to the city government. However, it was up to the city government to get the decision implemented as soon as possible, he maintained.—PPI