Islamabad: Traders resent construction of housing societies on agri lands

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: The business community on Friday demanded of the government to discourage building of housing societies on agricultural land to avoid any food threat to the country in future.

Rising food prices and low purchasing power were leading to increased food insecurity in Pakistan’s growing cities and towns. One of the many reasons of this situation was the mushrooming construction of housing societies on agricultural land. Zahid Maqbool, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry had expressed these views in a meeting here on Friday.

He said most of the countries were discouraging construction of housing societies on agricultural land to meet their food needs and lamented that in Pakistan no attention was being paid to counter this rising trend of, which could trigger the problem of food scarcity. He also expressed reservations over government’s moves to lease or sell land to foreign investors and stressed that this sensitive issue should be fully debated in the parliament to reach a consensus, which should not challenge the food security of the country.

The ICCI chief said that without protecting the interests of the country and removing all contentious issues, leasing land to foreigners would aggravate food insecurity especially in case the entire farm produce from our land were exported to countries to meet their food needs. He said the best option for Pakistan was that instead of leasing land to foreigners, the government should encourage foreign investors in the field of manufacturing or processing of agriculture produce. staff report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_5