LAHORE, Dec 15: Federal Housing and Works Minister Syed Safwanullah says the national housing policy announced some four years ago is yet to be implemented owing to procedural snags. Speaking at the Pakistan Housing Sector Conference organized by Mediators here on Thursday, the minister said the policy had been formulated in six years but had not been implemented during the past four years because the provincial governments had not provided it information concerning availability of land in big cities.

He said implementation of the housing policy was also being delayed because the federal government could only announce it. The registration of housing societies was to be done by the provincial and district governments.

He said the review of building codes and incorporation of the provisions concerning quake resistance would be completed by Dec 20. The Capital Development Authority had decided to stop multi-storey constructions and allow only vertical constructions in the faultline areas.

He said the government had decided to build houses for its employees so that they might not be rendered homeless after retirement. Construction of 1,000 multi-storey flats for grade 1 to 16 employees had been started in Islamabad.

The minister said housing and financial experts should devise policies for reducing cost of construction to solve the housing problem of the middle class and low-income groups because the housing backlog was increasing with the passage of time on account of high cost of land and construction.

He said the federal government had asked provincial governments to identify 10 acres in every district for the construction of houses for government servants. Only the Punjab government had identified land in some districts so far.

He said the banks and financial institutions’ housing finance policy was meant for advancing loans only to the rich. The middle class and the poor could not benefit from the loans. He said the banks should set up separate counters for housing finance, and developers and engineers design low-cost housing projects.