Senate body for placing CDA under Housing Ministry
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—The Senate Standing Committee on Tuesday called for the placement of the Capital Development Authority under the Ministry of Housing and Works. The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Ali Brohi discussed the matter of placement of the civic body under any organization of the ministry and stressed that the matter should be resolved on permanent basis.
"The matter has affected the performance of the CDA and there is need to address the problem of placement of CDA on permanent basis," the committee observed. It was recommended that CDA should be placed under the Ministry of Housing and Works so that the construction and development work in the federal capital could be carried out in a more befitting manner.
The senate committee directed the Ministry of Housing and Works to move a summary in this regard to the Prime Minister for further necessary action. Senior official of the Cabinet Division also justified the position of the placement of CDA under Cabinet Division.
He said that Cabinet Division has more than 14 years of experience of administering it and ensures it independent functioning. Members of the Committee were of the view that housing problem was getting aggravated with the passage of time and the need was to launch more housing schemes for the low-paid employees of the Federal Government in the country.
They underlined the need for involving private sector to launch new housing schemes. DG, Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation also apprised the members about allotment of plots in Phase-IV in sectors G-14 and G-15. He informed the Committee about the total amount deposited so for by the allottees and gave justification for requesting the allottees to deposit money with the FGEHF as per scheduled installments on account of built up properties to compensate inhabitants of the area for their built up structures.
The committee also discussed the status of project regarding construction of 400-bed Women Hospital and Chest Diseases Center in Rawalpindi and the procedure adopted for awarding contracts for execution of the project. The Committee expressed its concern over the slow pace of work on the hospital and directed the Ministry of Housing and Works to expedite the development work. The committee observed that merit policy was not followed while awarding contracts. It constituted a three member inquiry committee to probe whether the contracts have been awarded on merit or not.
DG, Pak-PWD, Ali Akbar Sheikh informed the Committee about the project and said that efforts were being made to expedite the process of construction of hospital. The Committee also expressed its dissatisfaction over the poor quality of work in the Wafaqi Colony Lahore and directed that an inquiry should be conducted against the Contractor and the officials involved. The Committee assured its support to the Ministry of Housing & Works to remove the bottlenecks in the way of its smooth functioning and expressed the hope that all out efforts would be made to work for the betterment of the people by chalking out more viable policies and such initiatives would be taken which have a trickle down effect.