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| April 26, 2007 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 08, 1428 |
Home — bottomline of common man’s lifelong struggle
ISLAMABAD, April 25: A common man sweats blood in his lifelong struggle to translate his dream of owing a house into reality.
Home, the bottomline of worldly life, is no doubt considered the most enduring achievement that provides refuge and sanctuary to the family members.
People continue to engage in untiring endeavours to realise this ambition with the hope that luck might smile at them in future.
With escalating demand across the world for housing, a sudden surge in this sector has been witnessed with the use of latest technology and cost-effective mechanism.
Besides, the focus has now been shifted to the construction of low-cost residential units with the erection of condominiums in several developing countries.
These housing schemes have been called as the ‘third culture’ as it is extensively discussed in scientific literature at world level and forums.
These schemes are implemented in many third world countries and their results are marvellous and amazing. The term can be defined as construction of flats and sites-and-services projects often combined with core housing that offers accommodation to the lower and middle classes, particularly state and local functionaries.
The Pakistani government is taking various concrete steps to tackle the hike in land prices and provide cost-effective houses to low-income groups.
According to Federal Minister for Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah, the housing backlog in the country is touching the figure of five to six million units. While the available housing accommodation facility for the federal government employees stands at 22,000 units against the 386,000 eligible people.
Elaborating the measures for solving the problem being faced by low-paid government employees in the federal capital, the minister said an initiative for the construction of low-cost houses had been taken.
About 10,000 to 15,000 housing units for those working in BPS-1 to 16 will be constructed on ownership basis formula to help resolve their residential problems, he added.
Mr Safwanullah said public-private partnership was being sought to encourage construction of multi-storeyed buildings.
Likewise, officials serving in BPS-17 to 19 will get flats with covered area of 1,800 square feet, while officials in BPS-20 to 22 would be entitled to apartments with covered area of 2,500 square feet.
The Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) has been tasked with launching development work in sectors G-14, G-15 and F-12.
The phase-IV housing scheme was launched in sectors G-14/1, 2, 3 and G-15/3 and 4 and about 6,678 plots of different sizes are included in this project.
The phase-V housing scheme (sub-sectors G-11/3, 4) is a pilot project comprising 1,000 apartments of three different categories, which have been allotted through balloting.
The construction work on these apartments is expected to be completed by the year end. While Phase-VI housing scheme that has already been approved by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will be launched in F-12.
Similarly, the government has also started construction of houses for low-income groups in all the metropolitans of the country.
The government is working on a “Land Bank” project under which affordable land would be made available for development.
Moreover, to streamline the process, “Land Acquisition Formula” has been altered while the development of F-12 sector is expected to come as a major shift in the prevailing trend.
The Ministry of Housing and Works is also trying to introduce latest technology with a particular focus on research in this field.
According to the ministry’s last advisory board meeting, no viable research work has ever been done in the housing sector in Pakistan. —APP
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