ISLAMABAD, June 30: All four provinces on Thursday opposed the National Housing Policy-2001, saying it “does not cater to the requirement of housing for the low-income group”. At a meeting of the Housing Advisory Board (HAB) held in the ministry of housing and works, the provincial representatives expressed the view that under the policy they could not provide houses to the low-income group at low rates.

The meeting, presided over by housing secretary Chaudhry Abdul Rauf, observed that prices of construction material should be drastically reduced to facilitate people belonging to the lower and middle classes.

The HAB, comprising 40 members, half of them from the private sector, was formed in May this year to guide and advise the ministry on matters relating to housing.

It was mandated to examine shortcomings and bottlenecks in previous policies which had resulted in their non-implementation and to formulate a comprehensive workable national housing policy with an in-built mechanism for implementation.

The provincial representatives said that under the NHP-2001 they were bound to purchase land for housing at market rates, therefore they could not provide houses to the low-income group at affordable prices.

They demanded that the government subsidize the price of land to be purchased by housing departments so that people could get houses at reduced rates.

Officials from Punjab said that the revenue laws of the province should also be amended to encourage the private sector to launch housing schemes.

Sindh’s representatives endorsed almost all the demands made by Punjab.

The housing department of Balochistan called for a comprehensive land survey in the province. The meeting was informed that 250 acres of state land in Gwadar had been sold.

The NWFP complained that there was no development authority in the province to develop housing schemes.

The board discussed various issues which hampered the housing and construction activities in the country, particularly non-availability of affordable land, high prices of construction material, weak institutional setup, unregulated growth of cooperative and private housing societies.

It was felt that due to ineffective institutional setup at the federal level, the National Housing Policy, which had been approved by the federal cabinet on December 5, 2001, and also by the president, was not being properly implemented.

It was, therefore, decided that the National Housing Authority, which had already been awarded implementation work of NHP-2001, will be strengthened so that the policy was implemented in letter and in spirit.

The meeting formed two sub-committees on land and affordable housing comprising members of the board to formulate recommendations and furnish their reports to the ministry within six weeks.