June 14, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 13: Housing minister Safwanullah has said his ministry is reducing rents of commercial buildings which were increased some months ago.

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, the minister said since taking over the charge of the ministry, he had first reduced rents to their previous level.

He said under a decision taken some months ago, the rent of commercial units had been increased up to 300 per cent. “However, we were reducing them again,” he added.

The Estate Office has hundreds of commercial units which have been on rent.

Replying to a question about violations of General Waiting List, under which the Estate Office provides official accommodation to the government servants, the minister said sometimes it became necessary to make adjustment to the list which should not called violation.

Talking about failure of some housing projects carried out by National Housing Authority, he said the main cause of their failure was wrong site selection. As a result, the schemes could not attracts buyers and remained unsuccessful.

“We will definitely take action against those who were responsible for the failure of these schemes,” he added.

Mr Safwanullah said the government had increased budgetary allocation for housing sector which would help overcome the housing backlog to some extent.

He said the ministry would review the recent budgetary allocation and formulate new schemes to met housing demand.

When asked whether he had been given the housing ministry as a result of a deal, the minister said the government had agreed to give two ministries to the coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). He said the party had not sought the housing and communications ministry.

“This is just a coincidence that some 12 years ago, MQM had been given the same ministry,” he said.

“The housing ministry has a direct link with the common man and, thus, we thought that we could serve them better through this ministry,” Mr Safwanullah said.

Answering a question about involvement of housing ministry in reconstruction of Afghanistan, he said it was up to the government to take decision about it. “If both Afghanistan and Pakistani governments agree to engage local housing ministry in the reconstruction plan, we will definitely go for it,” he said.

The minister was hopeful that due to extra emphasis of the government on housing and construction industry, the public and private and housing activities would get a boost in future.