ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday appointed grade 20 officer Usman Akhtar Bajwa chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
Mr Bajwa, who is from the Pakistan Administrative Service, was previously the director general of Immigration and Passports. He has now been appointed CDA chairman, a post that had been vacant since Dec 29, 2017, when acting chairman and mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz was removed by the Islamabad High Court.
The authority had come to standstill in terms of its development work during the tenure of the incumbent government, with only one mega-project – the expansion of Islamabad Highway – moving forward. Although CDA high-ups blamed the standstill on financial constraints, many believe it occurred because of financial mismanagement.
The new chairman will face several challenges, with an ongoing transition period regarding the transfer of assets and manpower between the CDA and the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
The authority has also failed to develop new sectors, with areas such as D-13, E-13, F-13, C-13, C-14 and C-16 awaiting an administrator to be opened, while I-15, I-14, I-12, E-12, H-16 and I-17, are just some of a long list of stalled sectors to which the new chairman would have to pay attention.
CDA officials say longstanding issues with Islamabad’s affected people – whose land was acquired by the CDA decades ago but whose claims of compensation have yet to be cleared – also need to be resolved.
“The process of compensation of affected people should be started after adopting a strict procedure, but the CDA can’t deny the right of the affected people on the pretext of corruption in the land directorate,” said an official of CDA.
“Instead of stopping work, we should take steps to control corruption in land directorate,” he said, adding that the new chairman would have to take steps to improve the CDA’s financial situation. Besides, unauthorized construction in Islamabad, particularly unauthorised commercial buildings are also another phenomena to deal with by new chairman.
Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2018