ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: The federal minister for environment, local government and manpower, Owais Ahmed Ghani, has directed the overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) to start development work on the OPF housing scheme in Zone-V Islamabad on emergency basis.

He was speaking at a meeting of the OPF board of governors and consultants on Wednesday.

The minister directed the OPF administration to immediately start the process of allotment of plots to the overseas Pakistanis. He expressed his satisfaction over the adequate availability of water for the housing scheme.

The consultants, Nespak, who designed the master plan of the scheme, and the Associated Consultant Engineers (ACE), who conducted the study on the availability of water resources for the scheme, gave a briefing to the minister.

Later, the minister accompanied by the consultants visited the site where tubewells would be installed to meet water requirements of the residents.

The consultants of both Nespak and the ACE assured that water availability would not pose any problems.

The OPF managing director, Rashid Mahmood Ansari, said the scheme would initially be restricted to 5,000 kanals where approximately 2,800 plots for residential purposes would be designed. He said all amenities like market, educational institutions, mosques, recreational centres, clubs and roads would be provided to make the scheme more attractive.

He said after taking all aspects into consideration and confirming availability of water in the area, the scheme was launched on July 2001.

The OPF spokesman said the money deposited in shape of instalments was lying safe with the OPF and there was no precedent that the Foundation had ever defaulted with the deposits of the overseas Pakistanis.