ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: The centre has directed provincial governments to improve the present regulatory framework and monitoring system to check unauthorized sale of plots and low standard development in private housing schemes, an official of the Ministry of Housing and Works said on Thursday.

The directives were issued by a committee formed by the federal government on cooperative housing societies which met on Thursday, the official said.

The meeting discussed recommendations presented by the subcommittee and it was realized that there was a dire need for improving monitoring system for housing societies.

It was informed in the meeting that the Punjab government had already finalized a draft bill on private housing societies. The committee asked other provinces to also adopt this bill.

The subcommittee recommended amendments to registration of Private Housing Companies Ordinance-1984 of the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in view of the fact that there was no monitoring mechanism available with the commission.

The meeting observed that there were constitutional issues involved in the registration of private housing companies.

An interim report prepared by the subcommittee regarding registration of private housing schemes would be submitted to the cabinet division.

“Once the legal opinion is received, a final report will be submitted subsequently,” the official said.

The second meeting of the committee was presided over by Federal Minister of Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah.

The subcommittee had analyzed each TOR (Terms of Reference) of private housing schemes, examined the causes of the problem and came up with remedial measures, both legal and administrative. The subcommittee reviewed the following TORs in a comprehensive manner:

Unauthorized sale of plots without fulfilling the prescribed conditions; sale of plots in excess of the land actually held by the societies, mainly due to the serious lacunas in the pre- requisites of registration where societies are not required to submit land ownership documents; indiscriminate and unauthorized usage of government departments nomenclature to gain credibility; and absence of a single office to monitor the activities of housing societies and low standard of town planning and basic civic amenities in various housing schemes.