ISLAMABAD: Two senior-level officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) assumed their respective offices without even completing the mandatory requirements and in violation of the CDA Ordinance and the judgment of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), it has been learnt.

Sources in the CDA said that senior civil servants, Waseem Bajwa and Waqas Hanif have been appointed as Members of the CDA Board. However, they have not been formally notified as Members but they took charge of their respective offices.

Sources said: “They have not been posted as Members yet which is in violation of Section 8 (f) of CDA Ordinance, and they are not even on a substantive assignment in CDA, still they are attending meetings. It is not just in violation of law and ethics but also of transparency!”

The IHC chief justice in his landmark judgment against holding of dual charge by Mayor of Islamabad, when he was also overseeing the CDA, laid down the law for the appointment of CDA Member.

Justice Minallah in the December 9, 2017 judgement had ruled: “The appointment of a civil servant as member was definitely in violation of clause (f) of section 8 (of the ordinance) and an illegality committed for a long time in the past. Moreover, the appointment of a member cannot be made in violation of the principles and law enunciated in the case of statutory regulatory entities, intended by the legislature to be independent and autonomous.”

The IHC had added: “It was an obvious legislative intent and implicit in the scheme of the ordinance of 1960 that qualified and competent persons of integrity having expertise in the relevant fields were to be appointed as members of the (CDA) board.”

Sources said that the incumbent government has decided to make the appointment of “blue-eyed boys” in the CDA; however, since the law cannot permit them to do so, therefore, it planned to amend the CDA law through a presidential ordinance. However, the idea has been shelved fearing resistance from the Presidency. Therefore, the government was likely to go for legislation from parliament to remove the lacuna from the CDA ordinance, the sources added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022