Another favourite of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman has taken charge as new CDA member planning and design after the sudden transfer of his predecessor Tahir Shamshad, it has been learnt reliably. Abdul Aziz Qureshi, who earlier served in the planning commission, also the previous department of CDA Chairman Farkhand Iqbal, has been appointed as new member of planning and design of the city’s prime agency. However, some officials of the authority have opposed the move of appointing the outsiders on senior posts instead of considering the competent officials who have already been serving in the CDA for the last couple of years.
“The CDA is going through a critical phase and it will be difficult for its chief to run all the matters with his new team,” said a senior CDA official seeking anonymity. He said the present reshuffling in the authority had created fear among the senior staffers including CDA’s board members as most of the officials were allegedly replaced for opposing the projects being supervised by some influential persons.
Just few days back, the CDA chief replaced Engineering Abrar Shah with former DG water management wing of the CDA, Sanaullah Aman, who is also said to be a class fellow of the CDA chief. Sources said Shah was appointed as member engineering for the sake of controversial Rs 8 billion Light Emitting Diode (LED) streetlight project which involved the replacement of 65,000 conventional streetlights with LED lights. But he was removed from his office for publishing a tender of Margalla Avenue without consulting the stake-holders of the CDA, the sources added. On the other hand, Former Member P&D Tahir Shamshad was also replaced with Qureshi for opposing the release of Rs 1 billion for Kashmir Highway notwithstanding the said funds were to be allocated for Park Enclave housing scheme.
However, CDA Member Planning Abdul Aziz Qureshi told Pakistan Today that he had good experience in development work that he would exploit for the capital city. “I have now become a part of that team which is committed to work for the development of federal capital,” he said, adding he had served on senior posts and was capable of dealing with the matters of civic body smartly.
