KARACHI, April 28: The tussle between the Sindh government and the city government over the administrative control of two crucial civic bodies deepened on Monday when the newly appointed chief controller of the Karachi Building Control Authority assumed his office despite the fact that the acting nazim forbade him to do so and described the notification of his appointment as ‘illegal’.
The controversy erupted when the Sindh government issued two notifications recently and replaced Karachi Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal by Minister for Local Government Agha Siraj Durrani as chief of the KBCA and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.
The city government retaliated the following day and, in pursuance of the provincial government’s orders issued in 2002 and 2004, notified the KWSB and the KBCA as the 15th and 16th groups of offices in the Karachi city government. It also asked the heads of the two bodies to continue working as executive district officers (EDO).
The controversy took another twist on April 26 when Rauf Akhtar Farooqui was removed as chief controller of the KBCA and Manzoor Qadir, a Grade-19 officer in the KBCA, was appointed in his place.
Since Mr Kamal is currently on a visit to the US, acting City Nazim Nasreen Jaleel wrote a letter, dated April 26, 2007, to Mr Qadir, advising him not to take up his new assignment.
“It is learnt that an illegal posting notification has been issued wherein you are posted as chief controller, Karachi Building Control group of offices, CDGK, whereas the said post has been re-designated as executive district officer, consequent upon KBCA being notified as 16th group of offices of the Karachi city government. Hence, you are advised not to join on the basis of such illegal notification which is ab initio null and void,” says the letter.
However, despite issuance of the letter, Mr Qadir assumed his office as chief controller and not as EDO in pursuance of the Sindh government notification of his posting. The outgoing KBCA chief, who had relinquished charge on Saturday, did not turn up on Monday.
Talking to newsmen at his office on Monday, Mr Qadir said that the Sindh government had posted him as KBCA’s chief controller but he would obey the directives of both the minister for local government and the city nazim.
He denied receiving any directives from the acting city nazim for not taking up his new assignment. “I have heard this through the media but if I get any such notification, I will send it to the Sindh government for further action,” he said.
Sources close to the MQM and the Pakistan Peoples Party said that both parties were trying to resolve what they described as ‘some misunderstanding’ over the administrative control of the KBCA and the KWSB.
They said the MQM had refrained from issuing statements on “the curtailment of the city nazim’s powers by the provincial government” because it did not want to throw into disarray power-sharing talks with the PPP.
However, the MQM is believed to have raised this matter during one of its meetings with PPP leaders who asked the former to take up the issue with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
The sources said that a meeting between Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad was expected soon to bring to an end the ongoing tussle and improve the working relationship between the city and the provincial governments.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government posted Sajjad Abbasi, an ex-PCS officer in Grade 19, as EDO Revenue group of offices in the Karachi city government. He was previously posted as EDO Revenue in Dadu district.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/29/2008
