ISLAMABAD, May 1: About 18,580 government employees in the country are awaiting allotment of official residences.

Islamabad surpasses other cities in submitting applications for official residence since 15,692 applications have been submitted from the capital city alone followed by Lahore 1,221, Karachi 1,152, Peshawar 407 and Quetta 108.

This information was placed before the National Assembly.

As compared to these applications, the government has a total of 26,386 residences in the country which are already occupied by the government employees.

Out of the total 26,386 residences, 15,623 are owned by the government in different sectors of Islamabad, 7,839 in Karachi, 1,757 in Lahore, 669 in Peshawar and 498 in Quetta.

During the past ten years about 1,097 new houses were constructed including 889 houses in Islamabad of which 176 new houses were build in 2002-03, 64 in 1994-95, 160 in 1995-96, 16 in 1996-97, 156 in 1997-98, 52 in 1998-99, 102 in 1999-00, 73 in 2000-01, 90 in 2001-02 and 176 in 2002-03.

No government-owned residence was built in Karachi or Peshawar during the last ten years but only 108 houses were constructed in Lahore (66 in 2000-01 and 42 in 2002-03). Similarly, 100 houses were constructed in Quetta, (12 in 1994-95, 24 in 1995-96 and 64 in 2001-02).

However, it was not clear if the total 18,580 government employees as stated by the minister for housing and works were only of the federal government or they also included the employees of autonomous and semi-autonomous departments of the government based in Islamabad.

A large number of senior government officers are living in private houses acquired by the federal government. Similarly, many officers are living in rented houses.

The report presented by the minister for housing and works does not give a clear picture of this account as well. Similarly, it was not clear as to how many government employees in grade 1 to 16 were still waiting for allotment of official accommodation against the number of officers in grade 17 and above.

The federal government has been constructing official residences for officers in different sectors but it is for a long period of time that no official residence has been developed by the federal government for the low-grade employees.

Over the last decade, the only residences for low-grade employees in Islamabad were constructed in Sector G-6 under a plan to demolish the old government quarters, which were now in a dilapidated condition.

However, a dispute between the occupants of these old government residences and the government has badly affected this project which, if implemented, could have provided over 5,000 residences for low-grade (grade 1-16) federal government employees in Sector G-6.