PHOTO: REUTERS
As it enters the final year of its five year tenure, the government has finally started tapping long forgotten projects which it openly advertised in November 2013, terming it its flagship project.
The decision to go ahead with the project was taken on April 12 by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after a presentation by Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.
Soon afterwards, a press release stated that the prime minister viewed that urbanisation was rapidly progressing because of development activities. “It is, therefore, crucial to cater to demands of housing across the country,” the press release stated.
Low-cost housing scheme yet to get off ground
The meeting decided to set up a sub-committee headed by the minister for housing to work out a detailed plan in this regard within the next 10 days. The panel was directed to submit its plan in the next cabinet meeting.
Other members include ministers of planning, states and frontier regions (SAFRON) and railways as well as secretaries of ministries concerned.
An official privy to the development termed the decision a race against time, saying that the five-year plan would now have to be finalised in a single year.
“I think this is a Herculean task … This (project) was supposed to start back in 2014,” he said.
However, he said offhandedly that the ruling PML-N could do anything as they were expert at expediting structural development.
PML-N’s low-cost housing scheme limited to files
The plan
In the federal budget for 2013-14, the government announced that it would provide 500,000 housing units to the low-income group by next year through ‘Apna Ghar Housing Society’.
Under this programme, the government had planned to set up 1,000 residential colonies with 500 units each across the country, benefitting at least 50 million people.
This scheme is expected to help bridge the widening demand-supply gap of housing units, creating affordable housing.
According to the plan, each unit would cost Rs1 million and the government would take necessary steps to engage banks and other lending institutions to provide loans for these units.
Low-income: Housing scheme remains a political statement
The government is also planning to purchase land from provinces for building these houses but this never materialised because of the disinterest of the prime minister himself.
Finances
The housing ministry for the 2016-17 budget sought Rs350 million for the scheme, including Rs35 million for the project’s secretariat in Islamabad which is yet to be established.
Interestingly, land has been identified for the project in Jhelum and Gwadar and other areas in Balochistan but elsewhere it is yet to be identified.
Similarly, the project is yet to get a permanent chief executive and related staff to run the programme. A summary for these appointments remains pending with the prime minister. The acting charge is currently being held by a joint secretary of the ministry.
Cheap housing: Apna Ghar scheme in cold storage even after two years
Déjà vu
This is not the first time that the ruling PML-N has launched such a scheme.
‘Mera Ghar’ Scheme’ – flagged as the ‘biggest public sector housing scheme’ involving an expenditure of billions of rupees – was announced during the party’s second tenure in 1996, but it never got off the ground.
Recently, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Housing and Works dropped audit objections on one of the schemes initiated in 1980s where most of the work was left unfinished.
In 1987, the then prime minister Muhammad Khan Junejo launched the ‘Apni Basti’ project to build 130,000 housing units, but eventually only 35,000 houses were built.
The scheme had several flaws, including unrealistic pricing and unsuitable locations where there was no provision of water, power and gas.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ