July 12, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 8, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 11: The government will auction off 20 per cent of all apartments and houses being constructed countrywide for the federal government employees.

The decision became known after the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) got published advertisements in different newspapers regarding the auction of flats in Sector G-13 scheduled to be held on July 23.

“We have adopted a policy under which 20 per cent of the housing units to be constructed for the government employees will be sold through open auction to generate revenue,” a senior official in the housing ministry told Dawn.

The official said generally apartments were allotted to the the federal government employees on subsidised rates, but they could fetch good price if they were sold in the market through open auction.

According to the FGEHF advertisement, C-type flats being constructed for employees serving in BPS-16 in Sector G-13 will be put to auction.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had sold the whole sector to the housing foundation on subsidised rate, as land is provided on reduced price to the foundation not only in Islamabad but anywhere in the country for launching housing schemes.

The scheme was launched in Sector G-13 in 2005 and at that time, the government had set the price of a C-type flat at Rs1.8 million. But now the foundation is expecting around Rs4 million for each flat through open auction.

“We are expecting more earnings through auction of flats and this amount will be utilised to start other schemes for the federal government employees,” the official in the ministry said.

On the other hand, the federal government employees have rejected the new policy of offering plots to “anybody” through open auction.

“It is for the first time the housing ministry had adopted such an outrageous policy,” a government servant Aslam Chaudhry said.

He was of the view that the federal government employees had already been suffering from accommodation problems as the housing backlog had gone up to over 25,000 only in Islamabad.