Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that he believes the government's housing scheme — which aims to build five million houses for the less fortunate — will be extremely popular once it is launched in April.

The prime minister had promised to build five million houses in a launching ceremony, that was held in October last year, of the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme.

The prime minister had also announced the formation of the 'Naya Pakistan Housing Authority' that would provide one-window operations to facilitate the construction industry.

Earlier in September, it was decided that the housing project's supervision will be shifted from the Ministry of Housing and Works to directly under Prime Minister's Office.

Speaking at an international conference on housing in Islamabad today, Khan said, "We could have launched this initiative sooner, but we wanted to have our basic infrastructure ready before the launch."

To explain why the project is being launched eight months after the government came into power, Khan gave the example of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Billion Tree Tsunami and said: "When we launched this [Billion Tree Tsunami] initiative, we spent the first two years just creating nurseries and other infrastructure required for the task.

"People started saying that we wouldn't be able to achieve our goal. Then in the next three years, they started actually planting the trees and it is internationally recognised today that they planted 1.18 billion trees in the province. This tells us how important it is to have proper infrastructure."

The prime minister further said that the housing scheme will largely be involving the private sector.

"There are 40 industries directly involved with housing. By inviting the private sector into this project we are opening the doors of entrepreneurship for young people."

Prime Minister Khan further said that while constructing five million houses is an enormous task but once initiated, the number of houses being constructed will be increased with each passing year.

At the event, a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between Pakistan and the World Bank for cooperation in housing sector.