Transfer of assets, employees: IHC asks mayor, civic agency union to settle issue amicably

Court says it would be best for parties to reach mutual agreement as mayor also controls CDA

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad high court has directed the Islamabad mayor and the civic agency’s labour union to reach an amicable solution regarding the transfer of assets and employees to the local government.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued the directives on Thursday on petitions challenging the transferring of Capital Development Authority (CDA) assets and employees to the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC).

IHC judge Aamer Farooq directed the parties to discuss the matter and inform the court at the next hearing.

Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz has already been given additional charge of the civic body.

The court remarked that the employees were reluctant to join the IMC but now the mayor has been made CDA chairman, it would be better for the parties to discuss the issue and keep the court informed on progress.

Earlier, the court had accepted an application filed by two local government members from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to become a party in the case.

The case of transfer of roughly 10,000 CDA employees and its assets to local government is pending before the IHC.

The PTI leaders have contended that according to provisions of the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act, 2015, an interim transition period was still in effect. Practically, the local government has not yet become functional due to technicalities regarding the temporary transfer of CDA employees.

The applicants said that they were also stakeholders in the local government, but they have been “handicapped” in performing their legal duties.

In a petition challenging the handing over of CDA employees and assets to the local government, civic agency employees Azhar Khan, Mohammad Nisar Akhtar and Syed Munawar Ali Shah have challenged two notifications issued by the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) on June 22 and 27, putting the CDA directorates including their assets and liabilities under the administrative control of the Islamabad mayor.

CADD issued the notifications on the basis of a notification issued earlier by the interior ministry.

Their counsel Umar Hanif Khichi said that section 52 of the CDA Ordinance provides a clear mode of dissolution and transfer of assets and liabilities to the federal government or any other agency determined by the government.

According to the section, he said, the federal government may, by a notification in the official gazette, declare the authority’s dissolution on such a date as may be specified in the notification.

But, he claimed, the assets have been transferred through an office order and the same was illegal and unlawful as the assets and liabilities could not be transferred to anyone by an office order.

The next hearing will be on September 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2016.