ISLAMABAD: Indignant at the litigations steeped in inefficient bureaucracy, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) whether it ever conducted public safety study on the structural stability of billboards and hoardings in extreme weather conditions.

A three-judge bench of the court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, showed its annoyance as it took up CDA officialdom to task after having dismissed the appeal of the firm Mega Sign Boards against the CDA that the civic agency first altered the licence it awarded to the firm to erect billboards on Islamabad roads and then cancelled the licence altogether without intimation.

CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal, who was summoned by the court to continue the proceedings with the issue in public interest, was told to identify the officers involved in issuing licences in 2012.

Advocate Afnan Kundi representing CDA told the Supreme Court that the licence for the billboards was issued in the tenure of Farkhand Iqbal as chairman. It was granted under a provision in the CDA regulations that allows the authority to award such licences on first come first served basis.

Such litigations, however, gave the court the feeling as if things would not improve, or institutions would not start functioning properly, unless the Supreme Court takes notice of it.

Be it CDA, environmental protection agency or any other department or the corruption cases like the scams in the EOBI, DHA or Ogra, it seems that the entire governance has collapsed, the bench regretted.

How far the court could go on intervening in such matters, wondered the bench and observed that frustration among the people was on the rise but nobody seemed to care and as a result laws were being trampled with impunity.

Justice Dost Mohammd Khan on the bench also lamented that half of the population living in Islamabad were drinking mineral water because the water supplied by the CDA was not fit even for animals. The name of the Capital Development Authority be changed to a mere municipal committee, observed the bench, adding it should not become Capital Destruction Authority.

CDA chairman Maroof Afzal was directed by the court to appear in person in connection with its suo motu proceedings on the award of licence to the Mega Sign Boards, without following rules. The firm had highlighted the issue in its appeal to the Supreme Court against the cancellation of the licence after putting an advertisement in the newspapers that the authority would only award licences after proper bidding.

The licence, issued in 2012, allowed the firm to erect 24 billboards on different highways and expressways.

Later the CDA first reduced the number of billboards to 11 and then cancelled the licence altogether in August 2013.

Subsequently the firm petitioned the Islamabad High Court that the cancellation without any notice caused millions of rupees loss to it.

However, the high court dismissed the petition and the firm went in appeal to the Supreme Court which was also rejected.

But the apex court kept the matter alive to the extent of CDA through a suo motu notice.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd , 2014