Islamabad local government: Legal issues continue to hinder employees transfer

Transfer of employees from CDA to IMC deliberated

ISLAMABAD: Legal issues, modalities continue to remain a stumbling block in the way of transfer of the civic agency employees to the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC).

City managers, local government and concerned ministries’ officials deliberated over ways to transfer employees of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to the IMC in consultation with labour union representatives, here on Tuesday.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had stopped the authorities from merging the CDA employees in the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) without getting their consent in an order on July 12, 2016.

The IHC orders had stuck up functions of the first ever elected local government for federal capital by causing further delay in municipal operations, which was an aim to provide solutions of municipal problems to the doorsteps of the capital residents.

The meeting was attended by the CADD Minister, Dr Tariq Fazal, CDA Chairperson Maroof Afzal, Islamabad Mayor Shaikh Ansar Aziz, Ministry of Interior joint secretary, CDA Labour Union (CBA) General-Secretary Muhammad Yasin.

“The federal government and we in the presence of CADD minister and CDA chairperson assured employees that perk and privileges they were getting and enjoying in the CDA will remain unchanged,”  Aziz told The Express Tribune.

However, he said that the government had authority to transfer any employee to any department as it wanted.

Aziz said that the CDA was bound to give plots to those employees who qualified.

However, a CDA official in the legal department told The Express Tribune that services of several employees in the civic agency had been transferred to the newly-created IMC in exercise of powers under the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act (ICTLGA)-2015 without taking their consent and without giving them service protection.

The official said that the CDA would issue a circular in which the employees would be given an option whether they wanted to stay with the civic agency or were willing to join the IMC.

He said that in case CDA employees decided against moving to the IMC, the corporation would have to hire its own staff.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2016.