Administrator to assume charge today

Monday, March 01, 2010
By Fasahat Mohiuddin
Karachi
Karachi Administrator Fazlur Rehman has formally assumed responsibility, and will take charge of his office from today (Monday), the administrator’s spokesman told The News on Sunday.
Rehman is the 18th administrator of the city. As per law, he will remain in office for 120 days, after which local body elections are scheduled to be held. He is to report directly to Sindh Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani.
This is the second time Rehman has been entrusted with the responsibility of administrator/care-taker; he was also given the responsibility after the tenure of former city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, elapsed. His services were sought for a second time after major political actors of the province demanded that he be installed as the administrator of the city.
Rehman is a senior bureaucrat, and belongs to District Management Group (DMG) group (BS-20). Prior to his appointment, he had been asked to report to S&GAD due to a wrong notification issued from the local government department. Eventually, however, the decision to appoint him as administrator went ahead as planned. Interestingly, he is also the only official from Sindh to have proposed that the present local government system be scrapped at the inter-provincial local government meetings in Islamabad.
The administrator has not only served as the local government secretary, but also as the District Coordination Officer (DCO) Karachi in the Mustafa Kamal-led city government. He is also credited with playing a pivotal role in bringing CNG buses to Karachi.
Rehman has also served as the managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), and was also the district West commissioner. He was also appointed deputy commissioner in interior Sindh.
Political analysts claim that the administrator’s greatest challenges will be in terms of the financial crunch that the city government was facing. He will also be tested of there is a law and order problem in the city, they added.