ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday approved, in principle, the restructuring of Capital Development Authority (CDA) and directed that the plan be presented before the next cabinet meeting for consideration and final approval.

“The plan aims at restructuring the development authority to make it efficient and improve its service delivery. The objective of restructuring is to introduce effective corporate governance model in the organisation,” said a statement issued by the Prime Minister Office.

Sources said the government wanted to include private officials in the CDA board as is practiced in other organisations.

The Islamabad High Court in December 2017 had ruled that the CDA board and the chairman should be appointed from the private sector through a competitive process in accordance with CDA Ordinance 1960.

However, since then, delaying tactics have been used to complete the process.

The statement said the plan was presented before a meeting chaired by the prime minister at Prime Minister Office on Monday.

Discusses development of Blue Area in another meeting

CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed also presented the progress report of the last six months and informed the prime minister that for the first time the civic agency’s financial health had significantly improved with an available balance of approximately Rs11 billion to be utilised for developmental activities.

After devolution and creation of the MCI, the primary role of the CDA remained sector development.

It was observed that sector development had been stalled for the last many decades.

However, the CDA is now about to initiate development in the stalled sectors which would lead to creation of 23,000 housing units.

In this context, PC-1 for I-11, I-14, I-15 and E-12 have been approved and development activity in E-12 will commence shortly.

Earlier, the prime minister was also briefed about the progress made towards the review of Islamabad’s master plan.

It was stated that the commission constituted for the review of the master plan had finalised its report which would be presented during the next cabinet meeting.

The prime minister appreciated the efforts of the commission towards reviewing the master plan for catering to present as well future requirements of the federal capital and addressing some of the critical issues, including urban regeneration, conformity and new building code, slums, solid waste management plan for rural areas, ensuring water availability and new infrastructure to cater to the needs of growing population.

He reiterated that preservation of green areas should be a priority keeping in view the shrinking green land and rapidly growing concrete structures in major cities.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also chaired a meeting to review a proposed development plan of Bundal Island Karachi and New Blue Area in Islamabad.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, BOI Chairman Zubair Gilani, Naya Pakistan Housing Authority Chairman retired Lt Gen Anwar Ali Hyder and other senior officers.

The development of Blue Area was also discussed. The discussion centered around offering incentives to foreign investors to develop areas that have remained under-utilised and to concentrate more on building high-rises to address the lateral spread of the capital city.

The prime minister, while commenting on the proposals, stated that our priority should be to build high-rises to address the housing needs of the growing population of the city. In this regard, improvements in facilitating foreign investors was required.

A detailed plan of prospective developments of areas around the city of Karachi and the islands falling within the jurisdiction of Port Qasim also came under discussion.

A phased development plan was presented to the prime minister which would be undertaken for providing quality housing and better opportunities to those ready to invest in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2019