KARACHI, Aug 23: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz urged Pakistani banks to start moving towards new areas, which he said, were ‘liability management’. He elaborated that banks should now float and manage mutual funds and pension funds.

“In India, Malaysia and few other Asian countries banks are now focussing on liability management and doing good business,” he informed a gathering of bankers and businessmen on Saturday, while performing the launching of Habib Bank housing scheme.

Earlier HBL president Zakir Mahmood gave an outline of the housing scheme and said that a maximum amount of Rs7.5 million will be offered for outright purchase of house, self-construction, home improvement and house refinance.

Repayment period will be from three years to 20 years, and the loan would be offered on a floating and fixed rate of return. The fixed rate will be changed after every five years.

He said the housing scheme had been designed to cater to the needs of all income segments of the society but focuses more on low and middle income groups. He was confident that scheme to be offered through 1,430 branches network would be appreciated by the five million customers of HBL and others who are prospective customers.

After performing a token ribbon cutting ceremony of a model house for the formal launch of the HBL housing finance scheme, the finance minister said that after gaining macro-economic stability and creating an enabling environment it was inevitable to create opportunities for upsurge in housing construction for the revival of economic growth and activities in the country.

Mr Shaukat recounted the steps taken to give boost to the housing construction industry in the budget and said that conditions were now conducive to achieving a rapid growth in the construction industry.

He said the government was on track of privatization of HBL which has the biggest domestic and foreign branches network in Pakistan.

“Nobody should be worried on privatization of HBL,” he said and pointed out that it was being done to give more opportunities to the employees.

Later talking to reporters, the finance minister said that steps were being taken to check increase in cement and steel prices. He said the government was collecting data on the projects set up in textiles and other sectors and would inform the public.