RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has re-notified the appointment of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) chairman, rectifying fault in the previous notification.

The Punjab government had appointed chairmen of six development authorities of the province through a single notification issued by the Punjab Housing and Urban Development Department on Oct 4 last year.

The appointment of Faisalabad Development Authority chairman was challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC), which suspended the notification on Jan 26. As a result of which, appointment of all the six development authorities chairmen were suspended.

After the orders of the LHC, the development authorities’ chairmen and Provincial Minister for Housing and Urban Development Mehmoodur Rashid held a meeting of with Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar in Lahore.

Sources told Dawn that the governor was informed about the whole situation emanating from the LHC orders.

They said that it was the fault of the provincial government which issued only one notification for all the chairmen and thus, other five development authorities’ chairmen were also suspended.

In the meeting, it was decided that the provincial government would issue separate notifications for the appointment of each development authority chairman.

After the meeting, Punjab governor asked the Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar to issue fresh notification.

“The fresh notification was issued on January 29 and Rawalpindi Development Authority received it on Friday,” he said.

The notification said: “Punjab Chief Minister is pleased to nominate Arif Abbasi as chairman Rawalpindi Development Authority under subsection 4 of section 4 of the Punjab Development of cities Act 1976 as amended by Punjab Development of cities (Amendment) Act, 2014 (Act V of 2014).”

According to previous notification, Arif Abbasi was appointed chairman of governing body but new notification clearly stated about his appointment as chairman of the civic body.

RDA chairman Arif Abbasi told Dawn that the new notification was issued by the Punjab government to end the confusion about the status of his powers and he was appointed chairman of the authority not the governing body.

He said that he would resume his duties from Saturday as he received the letter on Friday.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2019