ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Thursday grilled Chairman Capital Development Authority Amir Ali Ahmed and questioned his working capacity, asking him to go somewhere else if he did not intend to perform his duties.
The dissatisfaction on poor performance of Chairman CDA was expressed by a 2-judge bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed during the hearing of a suo moto case regarding unplanned and unregistered construction of Banigala National Park area and grant of commercial leases by the Authority.
Justice Ahmed observed that the purpose behind declaring Islamabad as a federal capital had been lost. He regretted that the mountains and forests had been wiped out and streams and rivers changed into garbage dumps.
“Have you seen the Rawal Lake?” Justice Ahmed asked chairman CDA and questioned why the authority was not performing its duty. Justice Ahmed further asked the chairman CDA if the top court’s orders in the instant case were complied with.
At this, the shivering chairman CDA conceded that the orders had not been implemented in true letter and spirit.
Giving good dressing down, Justice Ahmed told the chairman to not give excuses and said, “If you are not competent enough, then why are you sitting on the post?”
“What have you done till now?” Justice Ahmed further questioned chairman CDA and asked, “Whether you want to convert entire federal capital into slum?”
Justice Ahmed further remarked that he was under the impression that such pathetic state of affairs was only in Karachi. Justice Ahmed asked the chairman Capital Development Authority to visit and look the condition of new Islamabad International Airport.
Justice Ahmed noted that since the day he came to Islamabad, CDA had been unable to complete the work on Kashmir Highway, saying that the incomplete structures had been left without completion.
“Have you ever thought that criminals and drug addicts might take advantage of taking refuge in such places,” the judge remarked while raising question on performance of CDA.
“Your only job is to sale the plots and establish slums,” Justice Ahmed sarcastically told the chairman.
“Sorry to say but your city’s condition is worse than that of Lahore and Karachi,” he added.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial, member of the bench, observed that the problem was that CDA was not taking the matter seriously. There should be some mechanism of dumping wastage being extracted from commercial and residential areas, he said.
The Chairman CDA also revealed that there was no dumping site in entire federal capital. He, however, informed the bench that a dumping site was proposed in Sangjani, an area in Islamabad Capital Territory. A team of environmental protection shall visit the site, he added.
He requested for a month time for completion of the project. “Whether the hurdles in completion of the project could be removed in a month,” asked Justice Ahmed. On this, the Chairman CDA Amir Ali Ahmed replied in affirmative, saying that he will submit progress report as well. The bench then adjourned the hearing for a month.
