Govt appoints BPS-21 officer Afzal Latif as CDA chairman

• Outgoing chairman to head Immigration and Passports under Interior Division

ISLAMABAD: The government has taken a much-awaited decision and appointed Afzal Latif, a BPS-21 officer from the Pakistan Administrative Services, as chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), according to a notification issued here on Saturday.

Current CDA Chairman Ishrat Ali, a BS-21 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Services, has been transferred as the director general of the Immigration and Passports under the Interior Division. For the past three years, the CDA chairmanship has seen senior bureaucrats like Maroof Afzal, Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz who led CDA for 16 months and then through stopgap measures like Ishrat Ali who was appointed by the interim setup.

A Herculean task awaits Afzal Latif as CDA is presently in midst of various storms. While an overly interested National Accountability Bureau breathing down its neck and looking into the wheeling and dealing of its officials, the Capital Development Authority during recent weeks has initiated transfers and postings of its officials from one directorate to another on massive scale.

While the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) is in no mood to give room to CDA, due to paucity of employees, the civic agency make do with age-old practice of giving additional charge to already posted officials and having deputationists.

ONLINE: The Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad has decided to install nine new water filtration plants in different sectors of the federal capital. With the installation of these plants, the overall number of the water filtration plants will rise to 48 in Islamabad.

Earlier, a latest water filtration plant has been installed at Bolan Gate F-9 Park with the cooperation of Saylani Welfare Trust. The trust staff will work in three shifts on the plant while water cooler has also been installed to ensure the availability of cold water.

Filtration plant will remain open from 7am to 11pm while the facility of cold water will be available 24 hours from water coolers. The number of water tanks has been increased to ensure the availability of water till 11pm. There are 39 water plants in the city, according to the data.