Final touches being given to National Housing Policy

[Salman]

Islamabad



Minister of State for Housing and Works Barrister Usman Ibrahim was briefed on the draft of National Housing Policy 2013-18 here on Friday.



He appreciated the salient features of the housing policy, which was developed to facilitate the poorest of the poor throughout the country with suitably located and affordable land.



The minister chaired a meeting at his office to give final touches to the five-year national housing policy.



The significant points of the housing scheme are:



* 3 marla housing schemes will be developed on government land for the homeless, to whom plots will be given free of cost.



* At least, 1,000 clusters of 500 houses each will be developed for low-income families through public-private partnership.



It was also decided that the draft policy should be placed before the relevant stakeholders of the government departments as well as the private sector to generate a more holistic policy based on consensus. In this regard, a conference is being planned in Islamabad soon.



The participants of the meeting were apprised that the policy will ensure cost-effective access to credit for housing. The government will be picking up a portion of the financing cost on behalf of the borrower and a provision of Rs3.5 billion is kept in the budget for this purpose. Moreover, the schemes on the model of Ashiyana Housing Scheme will be developed in which the government will provide opportunities to low-income families to own their house on payment of easy instalments.



The meeting was attended by Housing & Works Secretary Nasar Hayat, Housing & Works Joint Secretary Amna Imran, Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) Managing Director Tariq Mahmood Pirzada, National Construction Limited (NCL) Managing Director Hasan Haqqani, National Housing Authority (NHA) Director General M. Irfan, Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) Director General Zafar Malik and senior officials of the ministry.