Engineers’ promotion: IHC summons top officials of civic agency for defying court orders

Suggests initiating contempt proceedings against the CDA’s chief, member finance.


Obaid Abbasi June 12, 2012

ISLAMABAD:


A high court judge on Monday summoned the top officials of Capital Development Authority (CDA), seeking an explanation to hold the promotion of graduate engineers in violation of court orders.


Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered the CDA Chairman Farkhand Iqbal and Member Finance Javed Jahangir to appear before the court on June 15 in response to a petition filed by two CDA employees.

The petitioners, Muhammad Nauman Sheikh and Zahid Sultan, seek to restrain CDA from withdrawing its order under which they were promoted to BPS-18 on June 6.

The petitioners’ counsel Advocate Hafiz Arafat Ahmed contended that the member finance had issued a letter to CDA’s human resource department, advising its director general (DG) not to issue the promotion orders. The court questioned why such an advice was sent to the DG and suggested initiating contempt proceedings against CDA officials.

According to the petitioners, the CDA had kept the matter of graduate engineers’ promotion pending since 2006 on account of pendency of litigation between engineers and diploma holders/B-Tech (Hons).

After a legal battle of six years, an IHC bench finally gave a verdict in favour of the engineers on May 29. Citing the tragedy of Margalla Towers, the judgment said that the posts involving engineering works cannot be given to diploma holders.

However, the counsel maintained that the diploma holders have allegedly started pressurising the CDA following the judgment and the civic agency has given in to their high-handedness instead of challenging them. He prayed to the court to stop the CDA from revoking the promotion order.

CDA officials demand repatriation

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Cabinet Division and CDA chairman, the civic agency’s officials called for the repatriation of 102 officers working on deputation.

The officers should be sent back to their parent departments in light of the IHC’s recent judgment, they demanded. Earlier, on May 3, the IHC had ordered repatriation of officials serving in the capital’s police. The court decided a writ petition challenging the appointment of the officials on deputation in the Islamabad police, on the basis that they were obstructing the promotion of locals officials.

CDA officials stated that their demands were identical to those of the police officials, which is why they had requested the repatriation of those on deputation.

The officials further stated that IHC decision has been implemented and the deputation employees are being repatriated from the Islamabad Police to their parent departments.

“We have been serving in the agency for years but our promotions were delayed, while people on deputation were appointed on senior posts,” said an official.

Currently, 102 people are working in the CDA on deputation, 18 of whom are working as directors.

Staffers on deputation prefer the estate wing, where deputy directors, directors, and even the CDA Estate member were called in from other departments, said another official.

The CDA is an attractive deputation assignment because of opportunities for large-scale corruption and the chance to qualify for a residential plot if they manage to serve for a year, he added.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2012.

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