Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday announced a major housing project will be launched next month to provide five million housing units to the low income segments of the society.
Addressing an international housing conference in Islamabad, the prime minister said, “Constructing five million houses is a cumbersome task but once initiated the number of houses to be constructed will be increased every year.”
The private sector will be involved in the project which will directly benefit 40 different industries related with the construction business, he added.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between Pakistan and the World Bank for cooperation in housing sector during the conference. “The World Bank has itself decided to support the housing project,” PM Imran said.
“Positive response has also been received from overseas Pakistanis besides Chinese and Malaysian companies for the project,” he further said.
The premier explained that the houses will be constructed by the private sector and the government will fully facilitate it.
“People in Pakistan pay less tax and more charity because they do not trust the governments,” the premier said and hoped that people will now pay their due taxes as there is a credible government in the country.
“Such a system has been created that official institutions are hiding their land from the government,” the premier lamented. “We will imprison those who steal official land and are drafting laws to declare encroachment a crime,” he asserted.
The government is going to launch a plan to regularize slums in different cities, including Islamabad. Houses, flats and commercial centers will be constructed by developers following the models of Turkey and India, he added.
PM Imran said new constructions in urban centers will be vertical to avert threat to food security. “The task force will learn about this through the Singapore model,” he said.
“The government also plans to establish a land bank to retrieve land from land grabbers and also the dead capital of government departments. Land worth Rs500 billion has so far been recovered from the land grabbers,” he said and clarified that the houses of the poor people will not be demolished under this campaign.
“Affordable houses will be constructed in the tribal districts through micro-financing,” he stated.
