KARACHI, Jan 7: The on-going tussle between the two tiers of the system took an ugly turn on Friday when the Sindh government ordered transfer of two key officials of the city government.

The transferred officials are EDO (Works and Services) Shoaib Siddiqui and EDO (Health) Dr Fazal Elahi Memon. Sarfraz Ali Shah of the provincial works and services department has been posted as EDO (Works and Services) whereas Dr Nizamuddin Sheikh as EDO (Health).

Sources in the city government believe that the move is aimed at putting some pressure on the working of the city district government ahead of the upcoming local bodies election, scheduled for March.

The sudden move shocked the CDGK leadership which termed it "a violation of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance.'' The sources said that the Sindh government's action was part of its 'political manoeuvring'.

They pointed out that the uncalled for transfers, particularly of Shoaib Siddiqui, was effected at a time when as many as 16 major roads were being constructed simultaneously and work on another two dozen development projects was under way.

The under-construction projects included flyovers, underpasses, pedestrian bridges, major parks, bus stops, etc., they pointed out. The sources said that the transfer of Mr Siddiqui would not only hamper the pace of work on these projects, but would also undermine in the city's overall development activities.

Dismayed over the provincial authorities' move, City Nazim Niamatullah Khan rang up President Musharraf's military secretary and apprised him of the possible consequences of the transfer of senior CDGK officials.

When Dawn contacted the city nazim to seek his reaction, he said: "As a matter of fact, such moves are aimed at disarming me and creating impediments in the city's uplift projects currently being executed in various parts of the metropolis.''

He said that the transfers were ordered in violation of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-2001, citing clause 30, sub-clause 3 which states: "Posting of an officer or official of the government to district government shall ordinarily be for three years."

Expressing concern over the abrupt transfers being ordered off and on, the nazim's coordinators said that the Sindh government had only a couple of days back transferred the CDGK's District Officer (Parks), Liaquat Ali Khan, and now the two EDOs had been transferred.

"EDO Works Shoaib Siddiqui has been working very hard and with devotion to implement the city's nazim's policies vis-à-vis development projects whereas Liaquat Ali Khan has been implementing the nazim's directives with regard to developing model parks in letter and spirit," one of the coordinators said, apprehending that the process of development work would suffer badly owing to the Sindh government move.

Another coordinator was of the view that it would take at least three months for the new EDO to familiarize himself with the working of the works and services department.

Owing to a huge number of projects it has to handle and the requirement of relentless efforts by its executives, the department is regarded as 'horrible' by most executives.

He said that by the time the new head of the department got fully conversant with the department's working, the CDGK would undergo the process of elections, bringing almost all development and other activities to a grinding halt.

Tracing the history of transfers and postings of key departments of the city district government, the sources pointed out that the CDGK, which was still in its infancy, had witnessed in a short span of just three years, posting of three DCOs (Shafiqur Rehman Paracha, Mir Hussain Ali and Fazalur Rehman); four EDOs Land and Revenue (Javaid Hanif, Mohammad Hussain Syed, Tahir Shehbaz and Mohammad Wasim); three EDOs Finance (Shoaib Siddiqui, Iqbal Zaidi and Shakeel Naqvi; three EDOs School Education (Anwar Ahmed Zai, Gul Mohammad Hajano and Mohammad Aijaz); three EDOs Information Technology (Yahya Waliullah, Khwaja Shafiq and Mushtaq Rizvi); and four EDOs/MDs Water and Sanitation department/KWSB (Brig Behram, Brig Javaid Ashraf, Brig Asif Ghazali and Brig Iftikhar Haider.