Zardari seeks new solutions to housing challenges

[LahoreEstate]

The meeting was informed that in the long-term, 440,000 units would be built in the Punjab, 300,000 in Sindh, 150,000 in Frontier, 40,000 in Balochistan, 40,000 in AJK/Northern Areas and 25,000 in Islamabad. - APP photo

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday expressed concern over slow pace of work on the Prime Minister’s Housing Programme (PMHP), and directed the Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) to find ways to meet the targets set in the programme, a source in the Presidency said.

‘Out-of-box and innovative solutions have to be found to enable the Pakistan Housing Authority in the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Housing Programme,’ the president was cited as saying.

Chairing a briefing session on construction of houses for government officials, general public and the poor under the PMHP, President Zardari said housing was a basic human need and state’s neglect of this important sector had resulted in social unrest and discontent.

Those who attended the briefing included Housing Minister Rehmatullah Khan Kakar, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin, Secretary General to President Salman Faruqui, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Kamal Majidullah, Sindh Provincial Minister Jameel Soomro, federal secretaries and senior government officials of relevant ministries and departments.

‘Provision of Roti, Kapra Aur Makan is the basic premise of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) when it was launched in 1969 and galvanised the people to rally around the person of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the PPP,’ the president said.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced on the floor of the National Assembly in March last year a programme for the construction of one million housing units in the country. But unfortunately the target could not be achieved.

Briefing the media about the meeting, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president asked for focusing on providing housing units to the poor and the needy in the first place.

A plan should also be devised to provide affordable housing to the middle and lower middle class through mortgage financing or easy installment financial plans and also to government employees on the eve of their retirement, he said.

President Zardari was of the view the house building activity would revitalise the economy as dozens of downstream industries were directly linked with the housing development.

‘The adoption of a public-private model in the housing sector could prove most beneficial in the development of the housing sector in the country,’ he said.

The meeting was informed that in the short-term, 1,000 housing units were being built in each provincial capital and in Islamabad. In the long-term, 440,000 units would be built in the Punjab, 300,000 in Sindh, 150,000 in Frontier, 40,000 in Balochistan, 40,000 in AJK/Northern Areas and 25,000 in Islamabad, Mr Babar said.

State land in the federal and provincial capitals had been identified and expressions of interest from private land developers have been obtained and about 30,000 acres of land identified for housing development.

In addition 140 acres of land at Kuri Road in Islamabad had also been earmarked by the CDA. But unfortunately the land for the PM’s programme was selected in Zone-IV the area where housing schemes are still banned by the CDA.

The president said land acquisition and development by the state was central to the issue of housing development for the government servants, the poor and the needy and called for devising a viable plan in this regard.

Another meeting on the subject would be convened after a suitable interval to examine proposed plans for land acquisition and development by the state and the mechanism for financing the housing projects

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...nges-za-07