ISLAMABAD: After getting status of an authority, formerly known Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) has appointed its own deputy commissioner for swift acquisition of land which would ultimately speed up its stalled housing projects.
“Now we have appointed our own deputy commissioner for early disposal of land acquisition cases,” Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) Director General Waseem Bajwa told Dawn.
He said the appointment of own deputy commissioner was an important step taken by his organisation after becoming an authority in July this year.
Before the appointment of its own DC, the DG said, acquisition of land was one of the biggest challenges faced by the authority because it remained dependent on city deputy commissioners concerned for award of land and acquisition of land for its housing projects.
Housing authority DG believes the appointment of DC will speed up projects
Earlier, when the FGEHA had to acquire land for his housing schemes, it has to seek assistance of deputy commissioners of the city concerned to fix the rate of the land in demand and once he fixed the rate, it would have been final for the (ex-FGEHF) to pay the landholders according to the rate fixed by him.
But sometimes local landholders would not accept the DC rate and refuse to sell their land to the ex-FGEHF, which would stall housing schemes.
It is believed that now with its own deputy commissioner, the FGEHA can change its rates according to the demand of the landholders to get their land and complete the housing projects within stipulated time.
“Now I hope that some of the installed housing projects of FGEHA in Sector-14, Sctor-15, Bara Kahu, Thalian will take off soon,” the authority’s DG added.
When contacted, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said before becoming an authority the FGEHF used to ask the local administration/DC to acquire land. “But now when it becomes an authority, it can acquire land by its own everywhere in Pakistan,” he added.
The deputy commissioner said, before this, Defence Housing Authority (DHA), National Highway Authority (NHA), cantonment boards and Capital Development Authority (CDA) had already been empowered by their respective ordinance/acts and laws to have their own deputy commissioners and therefore these organisations could acquire land by themselves.
DG FGEHA Waseem Bajwa and his team have been working and playing a major role under the government’s flagship programme called Naya Pakistan Housing Programe (NPHP). The basic mandate of FGEHA is to provide shelter to the federal government employees.
It has a target of building and carving out 250,000 housing units/plots mainly for those who had already applied and had been registered with FGEHF.
Under NPHP, Prime Minister Imran Khan had promised 50 million housing units in the country during five years term of the government.
The DG said the authority had not only revived its stalled housing projects in the federal capital but signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the governments of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Capital Development Authority (CDA).
Salaried individuals, including government employees close to retirement have deposited money to book plots in five housing projects launched by the FGEHF in the last three years, the first of which was opened in 2016.
These are the Housing Scheme Phase VI in Bhara Kahu, Housing Scheme Phase VI in F-14 and F-15, Housing Scheme Phase VIII in Thallian near Islamabad International Airport, Housing Scheme Phase IV (EHFPRO) and Housing Scheme Phase X on Park Road.
The housing foundation began a membership drive to register government employees in 2009, when members used to be registered on a first-come-first-served basis.
The drive ended in February 2014 with almost 36,000 registered employees.
Around 100,000 federal employees registered themselves in the second membership drive, which was carried out on an age-wise seniority basis, from April 2015 to July 2017.
Except for the execution of some earthwork on land earmarked for the project in Bhara Kahu, all the other schemes were said to be in doldrums.
Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2019