August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 19: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday presided over a meeting at the CM’s House to review low-cost housing schemes, and declared that Larkana would be made a model district as announced by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani.

The chief minister reiterated the government’s resolve to make all out efforts towards providing “Roti, Kapra aur Makan” to the downtrodden, and said that provision of the low-cost houses to the poorest of the poor was part of the government’s policy.

“Under the “People’s Housing Scheme”, the Sindh government will provide free of cost land for the project and houses will be built and handed over to the needy people on meager monthly instalments,” he said.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister and Chairman of the People’s Housing Cell Zia-ul-Islam informed the meeting that lands had been identified for the project in various districts of Sindh.

He said lands had been acquired in big towns, like Karachi (near Port Qasim), Larkana, Hyderabad, Nawabshah and Khairpur for the low-cost housing scheme.

He stated that sufficient lands had been acquired a cement factory on Tando Mohammad Khan Road, 13 acres of the SRTC plot in Nawabshah, 150 acres in Port Qasim area of Karachi, besides and a piece of land on Larkana-Wagan road.

The chief minister noted that the scheme, initiated by the federal and Sindh governments, would greatly benefit the poor and needy people.

The meeting decided to develop two villages of 50 houses each in Thatta and Badin districts initially to do planning and assess the cost of more such projects under the low-cost housing scheme.

The meeting was informed that a 100-acre piece of land had been acquired in Deh Surjani for the housing scheme while

10 model houses had been constructed in Keti Bundar. The houses were strong enough to stand a cyclone, it was told.

The meeting decided that Arbab Wazir Memon, Abdul Wahid Soomro and Dr Sikandar Mahendro would act as members of the housing committees of their respective districts. Besides, community organisations would be formed to mobilise people in this regard.

Mr Shah told the meeting that the UNDP had also put up its proposals on the low-cost housing scheme details of which would be given at a briefing to be held soon.

The meeting was attended, among others, by Minister for Low-Cost Housing Syed Ali Mardan Shah and Additional Chief Secretary (P&D) Nazar Hussain Mahar.

End to dictatorship hailed

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that democratic forces forced former president Pervez Musharraf to stand down the same way Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had dislodged Ayub Khan with the support of the masses, APP adds.

“Today, dictatorship has come to an end and a real democracy as dawned,” he told a jubilant crowd of PPP workers who gathered outside the Bilawal House on Tuesday to celebrate Gen (retd) Musharraf’s departure from the presidency a day earlier.

Mr Shah said that now when real democracy had started to take root in the country, people would start getting jobs and the pace of development would get faster.

He acknowledged that PPP workers had rendered great sacrifices for the restoration of democracy in the country. Benazir Bhutto also laid down her life for the cause of democracy, he said.

He said the Musharraf era was full of oppression and barbarism during which national institutions were ruined.

The chief minister paid tribute to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and heads of all coalition partners for achieving the breakthrough.