RAWALPINDI, April 15: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday that small landowners must be protected from the land-grabbing mafia, and they must get a fair price of their land.

The president asked the provincial authorities to initiate legal action against housing societies which, after acquiring land, had failed to start development work.

Addressing a meeting comprising representatives of the construction industry, contractors, property developers and other stake-holders in Rawalpindi on Thursday, the president assured the industry that the government would offer it more incentives in the coming budget.

President Musharraf said all concerned must work together to achieve the common goal of boosting the construction industry, which would help improve the economy, provide jobs and reduce poverty. "In fact it is one of the biggest sources of job creation," he remarked, adding that a boost to the housing industry will benefit more than fifty downstream industries.

The president heard the points of view of the participants and the difficulties and problems faced by them. A number of them also recommended some solutions.

The representatives of developers, builders and contractors identified land acquisition, infrastructure, delayed provision of utility services and other problems as the key hurdles in the way of developing the housing sector at an accelerated pace.

They suggested that there should be uniform building laws, and a reduction in the transfer fee of houses. They also called for issuance of NOCs by a single agency instead of several such bodies, elimination of discretionary powers of officials, a review of rent control ordinance and measures to reduce cost of construction machinery and raw material.

The chief ministers assured that NOC problem will be sorted out, and land transfer fee and rent control ordinance matters will be examined and improved. Regarding land acquisition, they said there were certain genuine land developers but a large number of unscrupulous societies were creating problems by just purchasing the land and then selling the plots at a high premium.

Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said there was a shortage of hotels, office space, tourist resorts in different parts of the country. Referring to the coastline of Balochistan and the Gwadar port, he said tremendous opportunities existed for the builders and developers there.

He said they could focus on such projects which will create economic activities and job opportunities. The president in his concluding remarks said many pertinent issues were raised during the meeting.