ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: The city managers will give a detailed briefing to President Asif Ali Zardari on the federal capital on Nov 19 and seek financial help to bail out the Capital Development Authority from what its officials say ‘acute financial crisis’ that has halted many uplift projects.

“We have received a letter from the President House that President Zardari wants to have a detailed briefing on the CDA and Islamabad,” CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Khan told Dawn on Friday.

He said before meeting the president, a presentation on CDA affairs would be given to the secretary Cabinet Division under which the CDA works.

The CDA officials said they have been facing acute financial crisis due to overall glut in the market especially real estate business. The CDA in its annual budget 2008-09 had proposed selling of its commercial and residential plots through open auctions but it could not attract buyers due to recession in the market.

According to the CDA officials, the present reserves of the authority have declined to Rs6 billion. However, former CDA member finance Kamran Qureshi has said the reserves were over Rs12 billion when former chairman Kamran Lashari and he left their offices last month. He questioned that where the remaining amount of Rs6 billion had been spent in a few days.

Avoiding comment on the plan to seek financial help from the president, the CDA chairman said: “It would be a general briefing on overall functioning of the authority and Islamabad.” It is expected that President Zardari will definitely ask the CDA high-ups about alleged manipulation in awarding of Rs3 billion tenders of the Kashmir Highway project.

The sources said the matter had also been brought into the knowledge of the president that how ‘wrongfully’ the contractors had conducted pooling and compromised the transparency of the contracts.

The CDA officials will also apprise the president of the drafts of the revised master plan of Islamabad prepared by the former government. Although the draft plan takes care of the projected demands on civic amenities and accommodation in the capital until 2030, there is a possibility that the new government would make some amendments to the draft in accordance with its future policies.