Islamabad : The appointment of a junior deputationist by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad as the head of the Building Control Section (BCS) has generated resentment among CDA personnel.
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Although the CDA has many officers of its own, significant departments such as estate, land, municipal administration, enforcement, and environmental wings are run by officials who are on deputation from other agencies.
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This recent selection of a non-technical officer, Umer Randhawa, to lead the BCS has gone against convention, as the position had previously only been held by technical officers such as architects, town planners, or someone with a background in engineering.
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There are three directorates that make up the BCS: BCS South, BCS North, and BCS City. The directors South and City both come from the CDA’s own cadre of grade 19 officers. As the new head of BCS, Randhawa will also be responsible for directing two directors in grade 19 who are members of the CDA’s own cadre.
However, the three directors of BCS have asked the member who is in charge of planning to remove Randhawa from his position since he does not possess the necessary level of technical expertise for the position.
The Environment directorate is also being managed by a junior officer of the PAS’s BS-18 who has just started working as a deputized employee for the CDA.
She has three subordinate senior officers in BS-19 who belong to CDA’s own cadre and have a large amount of experience addressing issues linked to the environment; yet, they are obliged to work under the junior officer.
She is the officer in charge. In point of fact, deputationist officers are in charge of a variety of directorates, including the land directorate, the estate directorate, the DMA, municipal management, the directorate of sports, the account directorate, and the office of the DC CDA. Qaiser Khattak, a deputationist officer of grade 19, currently holds the key job of DG Human Resource Development. Additionally, the directorates of HRD I and II are both led by deputationist officers.
According to certain sources, the CDA has reportedly made a request to the interior ministry in the most recent few months to engage more officials on deputation.
However, the CDA already has 12 officers in BS-18 hired from various government entities, and all 13 seats of grade 18 on which deputation officers may be assigned are already full. This is because deputation officers cannot be appointed to positions that are already filled.
In order to reach a decision regarding the CDA’s request for the services of more officers on deputation, the Ministry of the Interior has requested information regarding the deputation officers already working for the CDA as well as open vacancies.
The CDA is managed by a board that consists of a chairman and several members, however throughout all of these years, there has only ever been one regular CDA officer to be elected to the position of chairman of the civic body.
According to Noor ul Amin Mengal, Chairman of the CDA, the organization has been able to secure the services of deputation officers throughout the years and against various offices whenever those officers’ expertise was required. Concerns, on the other hand, have been made over the dearth of technical experience in the administration of the CDA as a result of the excessive number of deputation officials and the choice of a junior officer as the head of BCS.
