Union petitions IHC against proposed restructuring of CDA.

Byline: Malik Asad

ISLAMABAD -- The Capital Development Authority (CDA) labour union has challenged the proposed restructuring of the authority and filed a petition in this regard before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday.

IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani will hear the petition today (Thursday).

The petition, filed by advocate Kashif Ali Malik, stated that the proposed restructuring of the CDA cannot be implemented without amending the CDA Ordinance. It said the restructuring also violates the IHC judgement in the case of the appointment of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) mayor as CDA chairman.

The court had set aside the appointment of Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz as part-time chairman of the CDA and ex officio member of the CDA board.

The court held that there was no concept of an ex officio member and chairman of the CDA in the 1960 ordinance, and that a civil servant could not be appointed to the board.

It had directed the federal government to complete the process of appointing a new chairman within 45 days in a transparent manner, in light of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the Ashraf Tiwana case.

Instead of filing an appeal or implementing the judgement, the government had amended the law through the 2018 CDA Amendment Ordinance, which lapsed in September 2018. Since then, appointments and operations of the CDA board are in violation of the law laid down by the IHC in the mayor's case.

The government has now approved the proposed restructuring of the authority without amending the ordinance or otherwise implementing the aforementioned...