PM suspends 4 officials of CDA including Member Engineering, Director General, Director and Deputy Director of Electrical and Mechanical Directorate with immediate effect till further orders
by Shah Nawaz Mohal and Farid Sabri
Following the unsatisfactory letter written to Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif on December 26th, this year, on the directions from establishment division, the secretary CA&DD issued the notifications of the suspension of Member Engineering, Shahid Sohail.
The Capital Administration and Development Division (CA&AD) suspended 3 officials including director general, director and deputy director of electrical and mechanical directorate of the CDA.
One month ago, the PM was enroute from the service road near Benazir Bhutto International Airport road and was annoyed on the condition of faulty street lights. In this regard, then CDA member administration also issued a show cause-notice to Director E&M Asif Jah.
Member Engineering Shahid Sohail, Director General (DG) Sohail Anjum, Director Asif Jah, and Deputy Director Irfan Khokhar have been suspended by the competent authority.
Following the show cause notices, high officials of CDA has been suspended on the directions and approval of the competent authority of the Prime Minister.
According to CA&AD ministry, on the directions of the Prime Minister, the officials of CDA has been assigned a task to repair the faulty street lights on immediate basis, and improve the facilities for the citizens. According to them, the CDA has failed miserably to perform the assigned task; therefore, on the directions of the PM, the competent authority suspended these CDA officials.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had previously taken direct notice of lack of municipal services; the capital’s foremost civic agency is responsible for providing, and expressed his serious displeasure in a letter, written by Principal Staff Officer to the Chairman CDA and Mayor Islamabad, Sheikh Anser Aziz.
In the letter, the Prime Minister had pinpointed poor performance regarding inadequate and inefficient system of sanitation, poor state of footpaths and roads, lack of cleanliness along the streams, broken and worn down state of public parks, mushrooming encroachments in markets and along roads, dysfunctional street lighting system; invisibility of any horticultural activity and incomplete, misleading road sign boards.
The ire of the PM on the CDA comes at a time when the civic agency is headed by Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz, who was given acting charge of the civic agency back in September 2016. Recently the charge of Member Administration was given to Muhammad Yasir Pirzada, an officer on deputation from Inland Revenue group when a land scandal involving his predecessor Suleyman Khan Warraich came to the fore.
All key positions at the CDA are presently occupied by the handpicked nominees of Nawaz Sharif.
Furthermore, the PM directed Capital Development Authority to conduct an intricate analysis of measures that needs to be taken and prepare a a plan for its implementation. The prime minister will have asked for a presentation from the mayor Islamabad and chairman CDA on the aforementioned matters in the coming days.
