The latest plan by the Pakistan People’s Party to generate revenue is being described as a “cruel blow” and a move that would undoubtedly see the popularity of the party wane. In fact, critics say it goes against the very slogan of “Roti, Kapra aur Makaan”.
Under the proposed monetisation plan, all government-owned accommodation will be auctioned to generate revenue. Government employees residing in such accommodation will be asked to vacate the premises and will instead be paid a “handsome” house rent allowance.
The plan will affect 28,000 official accommodations across the country.
It has been drawn up by the housing ministry after consultations with officials of the Planning Commission, Finance Ministry, and the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
“Preliminary estimate is that the house rent would cost the government between Rs35 billion and Rs40 billion but the commercial use is expected to earn it much more,” a senior government official said.
The government has tasked the CDA to start implementation of the plan from Islamabad as a pilot project. The authority bosses are willingly working on this plan as they see it as a way to generate revenue for the cash-strapped agency. In particular, they are eyeing the land on which some government houses were built, and which the CDA claims it owns. “They hope that the CDA will earn billions of rupees by selling precious land under government houses,” said one insider.
Meanwhile, at least 17,000 employees serving between grades 1 to 22 will have to leave government accommodation in Islamabad.
An official of the housing ministry said such evictions will only worsen the housing crisis in the capital.
“The provision of official accommodation was always a problem for the government and government employees because of shortage of houses. If implemented, the plan will create another housing backlog in the federal capital because when 17,000 employees will be evicted from official accommodation they will get houses on rent in Islamabad,” he explained.
Even the federal government employees have rejected the idea of monetisation of government houses and many of them are of the view that they will resist the move.
“The government may face many problems while implementing the plan because we will resist the move and challenge it in the courts,” said Shaukat Niazi, a senior teacher in a federal government school.
When Dawn contacted Secretary Housing Kamran Lashari, he said: “The plan is a replica of a recently implemented scheme of the government under which government servants were made owners of their official cars on specific terms and conditions. From now the government servants will get monthly transportation allowance but the government will not provide them official vehicle.”
However, on closer inspection, the monetisation plan of houses bears no semblance with the monetisation of official cars. In this case, the government is not giving proprietary rights of these houses to the government employees but is forcing them to evict.
“The plan will not affect majority of federal government employees as only eight per cent of them who have official accommodation will be hit,” the secretary housing claimed.
Talking to Dawn, a federal government official said the plan would also affect the older residential Sector G-6, where more than 6,000 government houses are located.
“Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet in its recent meeting confirmed that the housing ministry had also included the government houses in G-6, including 200 flats of the Capital Development Authority, into its monetisation plan,” he said.
It is pertinent to note that the government employees residing in sector G-6 have been demanding ownership rights of the official accommodation so that they could renovate these houses by their own. Majority of government quarters in G-6 are in dilapidated condition due to improper maintenance.
Surely a middle ground can be established that will help both the federal government in raising revenue and at the same time providing convenience to its employees.