ISLAMABAD: The federal government has appointed four private members of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) board.

The new members from the private sectors are: poet Iftikhar Arif, Quaid-i-Azam University Vice Chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali, architect Nayyer Ali Dada and architect Ali Asghar.

The government also gave legal cover to the three officers who were already working as directors general CDA and looking after the offices of the members on a temporary basis. They could not be appointed as members under the CDA Ordinance 1960.

However, last month, an amendment was made to the specific clause of the ordinance through a presidential ordinance, paving the way for the appointment of the civil servants as members. The officers included Rana Shakeel Asghar, member finance, Amir Abbas Khan, member admin and Naveed Ilahi, member estate.

However, surprisingly, CDA’s own grade 20 officer, director general works Ayaz Khan, who was looking after the affairs of the engineering wing, has been removed and replaced with Sayed Munawar Shah, a BS-20 officer of Pakistan Railways (Civil Engineering).

The CDA falls under administrative control of interior ministry and on Thursday the interior ministry issued a notification, appointing Mr Shah as the member engineering after approval of the federal cabinet.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2021