The federal government issued a notification giving Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz additional functions of Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman on part-time basis without right to receive any fee or remuneration of the said post until further orders.
Recently Maroof Afzal, former CDA chairman and Amir Ali Ahmed, administration member were transferred from CDA due to differences with the mayor. Furthermore, the vying for power between Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) minister and newly elected mayor turned CDA into a battleground. The CDA’s CBA union also proved difficult for both bureaucracy and local body member to be kept under control.
During past few months, the news of rifts between CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) reached Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who also showed dissatisfaction over the performance of CDA. Initially, he ordered the handing over of F-9 Park, Lakeview Park and Marghazar Zoo to MCI, then he ordered the transfers of top officials and now, after making Ansar Aziz a member of CDA Board, he has been given additional charge of capital’s civic authority.
Last year in November, the capital held its first ever local body elections. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as a clear winner and Shaikh Ansar Aziz was elected as Islamabad’s first ever mayor in February. After much hue and cry over distribution of CDA’s directorates and functions, 23 of CDA’s directorates along with its thousands of employees were fully transferred to MCI while another 26 functions and directorates are all set to be partially divided between CDA and MCI.
“We’ve elected our members because we can hold them accountable, we can make them deliver and ask them if they fail to. For Islamabad to become a truly modern metropolitan, we need to have our representatives take decision and not some bureaucrat who sit in his office and practices his administrative powers to take decisions that affect all of us. We are moving in right direction,” said Syed Talha Zaidi, resident and businessman.