Postings and transfers: Capital’s civic body finally gets new boss

ISLAMABAD:

After remaining headless for over a week, the federal government on Tuesday finally appointed someone to take the helm of the capital’s civic agency.

Captain (retd) Maroof Afzal is the new chairman of the Capital Development Authority.

Prior to this, Afzal, a grade-20 Pakistan Administrative Service officer, was serving as the National Highway Authority (NHA) chairman.

Afzal — the fourth CDA chairman in two years and 29th in the agency’s history — will have to hit the ground running, as none of the agency’s last three chairmen have been able to retain the post for more than ten months.

In fact, within the short seven-month tenure of the PML-N’s government, Afzal is the third man to occupy the office.

When the PML-N came to power after the May 2013 general elections, Tahir Shahbaz was holding the office.

Shahbaz was removed from the position on June 21, 2013.

Shahbaz was replaced by grade-21 officer Nadeem Hassan Asif, who served in the authority until December 7, when he was appointed secretary to the president.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2013.