Govt to provide housing to working classes: Asif Zardari

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday said the government had launched a massive scheme to provide housing to people from lower income, working classes.

In his message on World Habitat Day today (October 5), he said the day “is an occasion to reiterate our collective responsibility towards improving the future of human habitat”.“For us in Pakistan, it is also an occasion to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and on the provision of reasonable shelter to all on the one hand and to improve the habitat on the other,” he added.
He said the growing population and unplanned urbanisation had contributed to the deterioration of habitat and also strained the capacity to provide shelter to all. “Mass migration from rural to urban centres in search of jobs and opportunities is a distinguishing feature of our times. This together with increasing population has resulted in climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity, law and order problems and an increase in the number of people living without reasonable shelter,” Zardari said.
The president said the theme for this year’s World Habitat Day – Planning Our Urban Future — therefore, was most relevant in meeting the challenges of inadequate shelter and unplanned urbanisation. “Shelter is the most fundamental requirement and a basic right of every citizen. The Pakistan People’s Party recognized it over forty years ago when it was founded by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the slogan of “Roti (Food), Kapra (Clothing) and Makan (Shelter)”, he added.

Zardari said guided and inspired by this founding slogan, the present government had already launched a massive scheme to provide housing, particularly to the low-income and working class people. app

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