Promoting merit?
PTI came into power with the idea of promoting merit but decisions like these raise questions about precept & practice
After wrangling with the bureaucracy and red tape for over a year, the federal cabinet recently decided to restructure the board of the body responsible for the development of Islamabad. However, the team sheet for its reconstituted board has raised many eyebrows.
Islamabad was built as a model for the rest of the country in all respects. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) was set up to ensure the development of this manicured city, and it has the mandate to uphold the ideals behind its creation. Ideas may be safe from vulnerabilities, but they are susceptible to the corrosive power of corruption. Over time, the authority has become a festering hub for it. The Islamabad High Court, while hearing a case regarding the construction of the Park Enclave earlier this year, had remarked that corruption in the body had reached to such an extent that it should be abolished.
Hence, it came as a surprise when the federal government decided to include the name of its former chairman Kamran Lashari in the new board. This is a man who has extensive knowledge about the workings of the authority having spent five years at its helm from 2003 to 2008. He is intricately aware of several decisions which have helped give the federal capital its current face. However, he also oversaw one of CDA’s most controversial period.
For one reason or the other, Lashari’s name crops up in almost every major case relating to the CDA. The National Accountability Bureau has filed corruption references against him, so including him in a reconstituted board designed to bring reforms in a corrupted organisation will unnecessarily burden the body.
The PTI came into power with the noble idea of promoting merit, a long-standing cry of those without money and connections. But decisions like these raise questions about the proverbial gulf between precept and practice.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2019.
Islamabad was built as a model for the rest of the country in all respects. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) was set up to ensure the development of this manicured city, and it has the mandate to uphold the ideals behind its creation. Ideas may be safe from vulnerabilities, but they are susceptible to the corrosive power of corruption. Over time, the authority has become a festering hub for it. The Islamabad High Court, while hearing a case regarding the construction of the Park Enclave earlier this year, had remarked that corruption in the body had reached to such an extent that it should be abolished.
Hence, it came as a surprise when the federal government decided to include the name of its former chairman Kamran Lashari in the new board. This is a man who has extensive knowledge about the workings of the authority having spent five years at its helm from 2003 to 2008. He is intricately aware of several decisions which have helped give the federal capital its current face. However, he also oversaw one of CDA’s most controversial period.
For one reason or the other, Lashari’s name crops up in almost every major case relating to the CDA. The National Accountability Bureau has filed corruption references against him, so including him in a reconstituted board designed to bring reforms in a corrupted organisation will unnecessarily burden the body.
The PTI came into power with the noble idea of promoting merit, a long-standing cry of those without money and connections. But decisions like these raise questions about the proverbial gulf between precept and practice.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2019.