LAHORE: The chief minister has approved a summary allowing introduction of house rent allowance for the entitled provincial government employees on the pattern and rates of the federal government.

Official sources said on Sunday a notification would be issued after the expected upward revision of the rent allowance rates by the federal government in the near future.

The federal government gives rent to its entitled employees whom it cannot provide official residences. The rent is different for different grades.

Monthly cheques will be issued to owners of rented houses

Top officials in the Punjab government had proposed the replication of the same policy for the entitled provincial government employees some months ago.

They told Dawn that the chief minister had allowed the scheme but the notification was not being issued to start its implementation “as we are waiting for the upward revision of the allowance for its employees by the government so that we can give the same to our employees.”

The house rent policy is being introduced in view of what officials said the provincial government’s inability to allot official residences in Lahore to all its entitled employees.

There are nearly 3,000 houses in five GORs in the provincial metropolis for cabinet members, judges and senior bureaucrats, and two colonies, one in Wahdat Colony and another in Chauburji, for junior officials.

Initially, all provincial government employees were entitled to get houses in these GORs and colonies but the entitlement was curtailed to those of the Lahore High Court, Punjab Assembly and Services and General Administration Department in 1999.

This was done after finding that majority houses were being occupied by doctors, teachers and other officials of the largest health and education departments.

Officials said the government had limited houses for its employees all of whom wanted a house. And the department concerned was under constant pressure to accommodate each one of them carrying recommendations from important personages and in majority cases “directives by the chief minister.”

The department was also facing litigation and the new policy would rid it of all the hassle.

The government would issue monthly cheques of the rent to the owners of the houses to be obtained on rent by the employees concerned as per their entitlement.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2017