ISLAMABAD, May 28: The Capital Development Authority Officers Welfare Association (CAWA) on Monday held an emergency meeting and through a resolution vowed that no ‘political’ pressure would be accepted for meeting the demand of ‘vested interests’.
The CDA officers from Grade 17 to 20 also warned that they would shut down the authority’s offices if they were not given due respect by the political lords of the CDA.
The CAWA is an association of 1,300 senior officials of the authority from the rank of deputy to director general who play an important role in decision-making and implementation of CDA rules and regulations in the federal capital.
“Actually officers are being pressurised by politicians to get their illegal work done,” the CAWA’s Chairman and CDA’s Director General (municipal administration) Mansoor Ali Khan told Dawn after the meeting.
However, the office-bearers of the association did not give any specific example of any pressure and irregularity committed on the orders of politicians.
It is for the first time in the history of the CDA that such a resolution has been passed by the senior officers. “We also demand the authority’s chairman to ensure that the senior officers are duly respected,” the CAWA’s chairman said.
Without giving any specific name, he alleged that the politicians warned the senior officials against obeying their orders even ‘if they were contrary to the rules and regulations of the authority’.
The association’s Secretary General Imran Shah said not only the politicians of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) but members of other political parties and standing committees of the parliament also pressurised them for getting their ‘illegal’ work done.
“Sometimes we are called by the politicians in their offices and directed to do the job without giving any time for consulting rules and regulations,” the CAWA’s secretary general said.
The meeting decided that representatives of CAWA would soon meet the CDA Chairman Farkhand Iqbal and present a proposal for the CDA Board meeting to seek protection from political pressure and humiliation.
“We will go for other options, including closure of CDA offices and demonstrations, if our genuine demands are not fulfilled,” the chairman of the association said.
He said the officers could move courts if they were victimised, transferred or fired for raising their voice.
Interestingly, Islamabad High Court (IHC) has already directed the CDA chairman to avoid political appointments and termed this trend one of the main reasons for irregularities, corruption and maladministration in the civic body.