CDA, IMC in a fix over recruitments

Key posts in planning commission lie vacant despite receiving NOC from establishment division

ISLAMABAD: In the wake of a recruitment ban imposed by the top poll body ahead of the upcoming general elections, the civic authority and the local government in the capital are in a fix over completing ongoing projects and recruiting for critical posts.

In January, the government had okayed a move to hire people to fill 75 key posts in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) engineering and planning wings. These posts had been lying vacant for several years.

The Establishment Division had issued no-objection certificates (NOC) for hiring officers on a regular basis on four of these posts in basic pay scale (BPS) grade-18, including the civil deputy director, engineering and maintenance (E&M) deputy director, and two deputy directors for planning, fulfilling longstanding demands of the CDA.

Moreover, the establishment division had also granted NOCs for hiring on 37 posts in BPS-17, including 11 assistant directors for E&M, 12 civil assistant directors, 11 town planners, a traffic engineer, an assistant town planner and a boiler engineer.

The management services wing was also granted permission to hire officials for three posts in BPS-16, including two assistant town planners and an assistant quantity surveyor.

Further, 30 posts for civil sub-engineers in BPS-14 and a post in BPS-11 for surveyor were approved.

Most of the posts were approved for CDA Planning and Design wing which analyses the housing needs of the city and responds according to the trends of the market and makes plans for all the urban and rural areas within the framework of existing master plan.

The planning and design wing has five directorates are under it, including the housing society directorate, traffic engineering and transport planning cell, architecture directorate, regional planning directorate and structure directorate.  According to CDA officials, all directorates are playing key roles in the planning, development, designing of the capital. Due to a shortage of human resources, the performance of the wings had been badly affected.



However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had on April 11 imposed a ban on recruitments to ensure free and fair elections (to guard against mass recruitments as a form of pre-poll rigging). Only appointments through the federal and provincial public service commissions and later the judiciary were exempt from the ban.



The commission had argued that various development schemes are announced in constituencies of candidates and constitutes a form of pre-poll rigging.

CDA officials said that due to a ban on recruitments and transfer of funds, the smooth running of ongoing development schemes, including work on the third phase of expanding the Islamabad Expressway will be affected.



The Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) also expressed its apprehensions over the ban.

Federal and provincial governments along with the lower and upper houses of parliaments had already criticised the ECP for imposing the ban on the recruitment of public servants and allocation of funds for developmental schemes until the elections are held, terming it an unprecedented decision.

The Islamabad High Court, after the Supreme Court had referred to it pleas from different provincial governments in their respective courts, had on May 10 set aside the ban.

The ECP, though, had subsequently challenged the IHC’s order before the apex court which set aside the high court’s order.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2018.