ISLAMABAD: After National Assembly, the Senate on Friday also passed the bill to make amendments to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) Ordinance 1960.

The bill, which will be sent to President Dr Arif Alvi for his approval to make it an act of parliament, approved three amendments to the ordinance mainly related to appointment of the CDA chairman and allowing the civic agency to enter into public-private partnership.

During the Senate session on Friday, the bill was presented by Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan. The bill said section (f) of the CDA ordinance shall be omitted. Under this clause, government servants could not be appointed as CDA board members and chairman rather they were to be appointed from the private sector through a competitive process.

Section 8 (f) of the ordinance, which has been omitted, said: “If he is for the time being disqualified for membership of anybody established by or under any law for the time being in force of which the constituent members are wholly or partly chosen by means of election.”

Amendments also allow civic agency to enter into public-private partnership

This clause was interpreted by then IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah in a well-articulated manner in 2017 with a direction to the government to go for appointing the CDA chairman and members from the private sector through competitive process for a fix period of time. But the government did not comply with it.

Renowned legal expert Kashif Ali Malik said the CDA was an autonomous body which should be headed by experts not by civil servants.

“Same was highlighted in the landmark judgment of Justice Athar Minallah, but the government defeated his judgment through this amendment,” he said, adding that civil servants could not deliver well as compared to experts such as renowned town planners and engineers.

Mr Malik, who is a former CDA legal adviser, said the IHC had directed that there should be tenure-based appointment from the private sector after competitive process.

“If an expert is appointed as the chairman from the private sector for five years, surely he will deliver. Whhen civil servants are appointed, they can’t deliver well because of constant threats of their transfer and posting by the federal government.”

Though under the section, the government servants could not be appointed as the CDA chief and members, successive governments never ever implemented the clause and always appointed civil servants as members and the chairman of the CDA.

And after today’s development, civil servants can hold these positions without facing any legal question.

Similarly, the bill also mentioned an amendment to section 15 of the CDA ordinance.

“The expression including but not limited to joint ventures, public private partnerships, concession agreements, etc” shall be inserted. Similarly, a new clause has been inserted which reads: “In the said ordinance, after section 49(f), the following new section 49G shall be inserted namely 49G. Ordinance to override other laws. The provision of this ordinance shall have effect notwithstanding anything contrary contained in any other law for the time being in force and such law shall, to the extent of any inconsistency, cease to have effect.”

The bill said Islamabad High Court in its judgement dated December 29, 2017…set aside the notification of appointment of Sheikh Anser Aziz, the mayor Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), as a member of the CDA board with additional functions of the chairman CDA.

The IHC directed the federal government to initiate the process of selection of an eligible person to be appointed as the member of the board for a fixed term specified under section 6(3) of the ordinance and appoint a chairman for a fixed period of five years from among the members within 45 days from the date of the announcement of judgement.

The bill said in order to elaborate the procedure for appointment of chairman/members CDA, it was decided to amend the relevant sections of the CDA ordinance.

Accordingly, the president of Pakistan promulgated the CDA (amendment) ordinance 2018 on January 10, 2018 for a period of 120 days which was further extended till September 6, 2018 by the National Assembly.

The federal government had proposed some amendments that lapsed in September 2018. The bill said recently the government decided to restructure the CDA board, therefore, the amendments became inevitable.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2023