THE PTI has made a commitment to provide five million houses within five years. This is an uphill task, if not impossible. It not only requires massive financial resources but also managerial qualities.

If one million houses are to be provided annually at the rate of four million rupees a house, it will cost four trillion rupees annually and 20 trillion rupees for five million houses in five years.

The staggering figure will baffle the policymakers of a financially-starved economy. I have a quick-fix solution to the problem for one major section of our society.

We have an estimated 2.85 million government employees in Pakistan. If an average amount of Rs3,000 (can vary from lower to higher grades) is deducted from their monthly salaries the annual contribution may go up to one trillion rupees annually (to be precise Rs1.026 trillion).

With government’s contributions this fund can further swell. A separate fund – ‘housing for government employees’ – can be launched to be controlled either by the government or by the representatives of government employees, including representatives of the government.

No complicated calculations are involved. Simple mathematics is needed. After a lapse of one year, each retiring employee will get a house out of this fund. If the average cost of a house is estimated at rupees four million, about 25,650 houses can be constructed annually with this amount.

Land can be provided by the government (on payment) because that will be free from all encumbrances. This way the government will be able to provide houses to all 2.85 million government employees on their retirement.

While serving as additional finance secretary, Balochistan, I had created a separate fund out of monthly contributions made by government employees from their salaries for a parallel life insurance scheme. Now the fund has to its credit billions of rupees and on retirement each employee receives a handsome amount.

Muhammad Nadeem Butt

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018