Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday performed the ground-breaking of Rs 100 billion housing projects for construction of 20,000 housing units for low-income groups and salaried people in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Quetta.
Among the projects being initiated under the present government’s flagship Naya Pakistan Housing Programme, six pertain to Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA), whereas one will be executed by Pakistan Housing Authority Foundation (PHAF).
Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister said the government has undertaken huge efforts for the start of constructing five million houses in the country as the initiative often drew criticism from the political opponents. But now after the breakthrough and path-finding, the journey has started towards realization of that initiative, he added.
The prime minister also expressed his pleasure over the decision of Lahore High Court regarding the foreclosure laws, and said the LHC judgment will bring a revolution in the housing sector through increased financing by the banks. In the West, he said, bank loaning facility is being extended for the construction of residential houses at affordable rates. The percentage of mortgage facility for housing in Pakistan stands at mere 0.2% as against 80% in the United States and the United Kingdom, 30% in Malaysia and 12% in India.
The prime minister said as inflation has started easing out, it will also bring down the interest rates. “All the figures show that inflation is going down, and the interest rates will also go down,” he added.
He said in line with the government’s vision of ease of doing business, all impediments in the way of the construction industry have been removed, and that is why the FGEFH was made an authority through legislation.
The prime minister said as the government employees, particularly the class four employees and police personnel, cannot construct their own houses with salaries, the government can arrange bank financing for them. He said attention was never paid to such issues in the past.
Affordable housing will target those people and will also benefit 40 industries allied with the construction sector, creating job opportunities and pushing economic growth. Describing 2020 as the year of economic growth and jobs creation, the prime minister said cities are expanding which also give rise to serious issues like pollution, lack of basic facilities and food security. The government has decided to implement master plans for the urban areas, he added.
He said as Karachi has been turned into a jungle of concrete, Islamabad expanded up to Murree and green areas vanished from Lahore, the solution of these issues is the promotion and encouragement of vertical construction instead of horizontal buildings, for which laws have been relaxed. He said income from the multi-billion-rupee commercial projects like the one launched in Islamabad for the construction of New Blue Area and others to be initiated in Lahore and Karachi soon, will be spent on the construction of housing facilities for the people in slum areas.
The prime minister recalled that before coming to power, he was shocked by reading the news about a government employee who committed suicide so that his house could be allotted to his son after his death according to the government rules. He said the provision of basic facilities, including the housing facility, to the people particularly the poor ones is responsibility of the state.
The prime minister said as he has himself seen people sleeping at pavements in Lahore. “I used to think that if I ever got power, I will do something for such people … and after coming to power, I started establishment of shelters for homeless people,” he said. “So far, the number of such shelters has reached 160 where the poor people are served free food with the cooperation of philanthropists,” he added.
The prime minister also mentioned his government’s another initiative of health card scheme for the poor and said in his opinion it is the health card scheme due to which the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gave Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf another term and that too with a thumping majority. He said five million people in Punjab have so far been provided with the health card facility and another one million will get the same soon under which any family can get free-of-cost treatment up to Rs 720,000 from public and private hospitals. He said it has also been decided to provide health cards to the special and handicapped as well as the transgender so that they can benefit from the health cover being provided by the government.
He said the government in the next step will strengthen the country’s health system by offering duty concessions to private hospitals on the import of medical equipment and machinery.
Imran Khan also stressed the need of correcting education system through uniformity in syllabus and curriculum. “We have a three-tier education system of English, Urdu and religious mediums,” he said, and remarked that different cultures created by such education system are also depicted through the recent Women March. He said strengthening of education, health, housing and justice systems are the priority areas of his government.
He mentioned that the government will come up with a Legal Aid Bill under which the state would provide the facility of legal aid to the poor, who could hire a lawyer. Earlier, the prime minister performed the ground-breaking of housing projects by unveiling the plaque. Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema, Secretary Housing Dr Imran Zaib and FGEHA Director General Waseem Bajwa also spoke on the occasion, and highlighted various details of the new housing projects.
