ISLAMABAD: The management of Capital Development Authority (CDA) has asked members of the lower house to exert their influence to appoint a single head for both CDA and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration.

This was proposed in a meeting of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat held at the CDA head office on Wednesday.

The committee members inquired about the status of various development projects of CDA and the reason behind the slow place of work in the new sectors.

Chairman CDA Maroof Afzal, apart from highlighting the pace of work on multiple projects, said that the civic body has been working aggressively on three new sectors; C-15, C-16 and C-17.

“Topography mapping of the land in these sectors has been completed and their detailed design is being prepared,” he said.

The CDA management said that clearing the encroachments was the most difficult task for the civic body, as it involves magisterial support and the presence of police. They told the committee that there was a wide gap in the approach of police, magistracy and the civic body, when it comes to clearing the encroachments.

It is because the police are usually too busy with law and order issues, they said, while the magistracy does not want to see any untoward incident developing in the wake of the operation. Meanwhile, CDA just simply wants to clear the land.

“We have seen that, at times the police are not available while other times the magistrates are too busy,” CDA Member Administration Amer Ali said.

“There has to be strong coordination between the two authorities – CDA and ICT.”

He said the CDA fell under the Cabinet Division, while ICT and the police work under the interior ministry.

He suggested that the merger of the posts of chief commissioner ICT and chairman CDA would help resolve many issues.

However, any such move would require a strong support of the parliamentarians, said the CDA officials during the meeting.

Meanwhile, MNA Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry also sought suggestions from the senior officials of the civic body to enhance development activities in the rural areas of the federal capital.

The committee was thus informed that the development agency for the rural areas of Islamabad was the ICT administration, while only the urban areas fell under the jurisdiction of the CDA.

The chairman of the standing committee constituted a subcommittee to look into the matter of rural-urban divide, including the problems faced by the residents of both parts of the federal capital.

The members of the standing committee further inquired about the number of recruitments made in the CDA during the last five years.

They were told that 1,281 people were employed in the CDA in the last five years, and almost all of whom were hired during the tenure of the previous government.

Out of these, 238 are regular employees, who were hired after the posts were advertised, the committee was told.

Another 899 are daily wage workers and 144 people were hired on the prime minister’s special scheme related to the children of the employees who died while on duty.

Responding to a query by MNA Syed Ali Raza Abidi, the CDA officials said that the majority of the daily-wage employees were from the lower cadre.

“Those working on daily wages were mostly gardeners, working staff and some technical persons, such as draftsmen, whose services are essential for the civic body,” the chairman CDA said.

However, the committee members asked the CDA to verify the documents of these employees within a month.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2014