Butt harassed us, claim CDA staffers charged with contempt

Say former PM’s taskforce chair, party workers were pushing them around.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials facing contempt charges in the Islamabad High Court said on Tuesday they were “harassed” by Faisal Sakhi Butt.

In Tuesday’s hearing on contempt charges for meeting with the former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Islamabad Affairs, CDA Planning Director General Ghulam Sarwar Sandhu, Finance Director General Imran Shah, Municipal Administration Director Mansoor Ahmed Khan, Chief Complaint Officer Haseen Raza Zaidi, and Staff Director Riaz Ahmed Randhawa recorded their statements.

Planning DG Sandhu alleged that he was pressurised and harassed by Butt and some Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers. He said Butt telephoned him at work and asked why he was not “getting things done” for his supporters, before threatening to have him removed if he did not comply with his ‘requests’. The court had restrained Butt from intervening in CDA affairs on May 14 and directed the authority’s staff to avoid meeting with him.

Sandhu alleged that members of the ruling party have great influence on CDA affairs and that the CDA Chairman was also helpless because an FIR had been registered against him on the behest of the politically-linked group.

Mansoor Ahmed Khan endorsed the statement, alleging that he was also victimised by the same PPP group, and that party workers claiming loyalty to Butt were treating CDA officials like their “personal staff”.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui asked Khan how many functions were presided over by Butt after the court suspended his appointment. Khan informed the court that just a day after the suspension, Butt attended a CDA function where former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appointed him as the chief coordinator on Islamabad Affairs.

The other three officials told court they did not know Butt and did not know they were going to meet him.

Ramzan Chaudhry, CDA’s legal adviser, again requested the court to accept the five officials’ unconditional apology.

After the verbal statements, the court asked them to submit their affidavits on the next hearing and said that if they really had respect for the law, they would have admitted their mistake earlier. He said the court will decide about their apologies later.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2012.