KARACHI, May 6: Federal Minister for Housing and Works Abbas Sarfraz Khan on Monday underlined the need to create harmonious atmosphere between government agencies and construction industry.

He was presiding over a meeting regarding implementation of National Housing Policy-2001 attended by stakeholders of housing sector, including various departments of Sindh Government and private sector builders and developers at the committee room of Sindh Chief Secretary office here.

Sindh Chief Secretary Javed Ashraf Hussain, Sindh Secretary for Housing Ejaz Hussain Kazi, Federal Secretary for Housing and Works, Muhammad Aslam, Chairman Association of Builders and Developments (ABAD) Abdul Hafiz Butt and high officials of Excise and Taxation department, House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC), Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority also attended the meeting.

The Federal Housing Minister said that private sector plays an important role in construction industry and confrontation should come to an end between business community and the government. He stressed the need for holding continuous dialogue for mutual benefit of the industry.

The meeting discussed in detail the progress made by the Sindh Government to implement the National Housing Policy-2001.

The Federal Housing Minister said that Master Plan for Karachi should be prepared to tackle the housing problem in the city.

He said the federal government is holding regular meetings with the provincial government and other stakeholders to review progress on NHP.

Abbas Sarfraz said each province had its own specific issues and problems and they were tackling those at their own.

He said that in the policy the government had suggested to involve private sector in construction of low-cost houses.

The Sindh Chief Secretary said the provincial government is trying to implement the NHP in letter and spirit. He said housing sector was very important and special attention was being paid to solve the problems of housing for lower and middle-income people.

Sindh Housing Secretary Ejaz Kazi explained various steps, being taken by the provincial government regarding implementation of the NHP.

Kazi said the Sindh government promulgated an ordinance on March 26 regarding transfer of urban property.

He said under this ordinance all the urban property would be transferred through open auction. However, he said the plots for low-housing schemes and amenity plots would not be auctioned, but would be provided on subsidised rates.

The Sindh Housing Secretary said the provincial government had prepared Master Plans for eight cities, which would be finalised by the end of this month.

He said work was going on for preparation of Master Plan of 10 more cities.

Moreover, he said that the district governments have been asked to suggest names of town for preparation of their Master Plans.

Under Goth Abad scheme, the provincial government has so far regularised 2000 plus villages and 702 Katchi Abadis in the province.

Work on regularization of 591 more Katchi Abadis is going on, he added.

Many participants of the meeting expressed their views that the Foreclosure laws, which have been made by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are not effective.

The ABAD Chairman highlighted various problems of the builders and developers.

He appreciated the efforts of the provincial government regarding regularization of irregular buildings in the province.

He said that construction industry is facing difficult period for the last three years. Not a single cheque had been issued in Karachi since launch of the new scheme few months, back, he alleged.—APP