As inflation comes down, interest rate will also fall: PM Imran

PM says government will facilitate construction sector; health, housing and justice systems remain priority areas

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday inflation had started falling in the country, therefore the interest rate would also go down, which would make it easier for the people to construct homes after taking loans from banks.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of Rs100 billion housing projects for low-income groups, the prime minister said that strengthening the education, health, housing and justice systems were the priority areas of his government.

The prime minister performed the ground-breaking of the construction of 20,000 housing units for low-income groups and salaried people in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Quetta. The projects are being initiated under the government’s Naya Pakistan Housing Programme.

Addressing the ceremony Imran said that government would facilitate the construction sector to help provide housing facility to the people. “The construction of houses will be undertaken by the private sector and the government will fully facilitate it in this task,” he said.

The prime minister expressed his pleasure over the decision of Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding the foreclosure laws, saying that the judgment would bring a revolution in the housing sector through increased financing by the banks.

Imran pointed out that house financing in Pakistan was abysmally low compared to other countries. “The percentage of mortgage facility for housing in Pakistan stands at mere 0.2% whereas it is 80% in the United States and the United Kingdom, 30% in Malaysia and 12% in India,” he said.

“In the West, bank loaning facility is extended for the construction of residential houses at affordable rates,” he said, adding that he realised that the interest rate was quite high in the country but it was necessary to contain inflation. “Now, all the figures show that inflation is going down, and the interest rates will also gown down,” he said.

He mentioned that the government employees, particularly the class-four employees and police personnel, could not construct their own houses from their salaries, therefore, the government would arrange bank financing for them.



In line with the government’s vision of ease of doing business, Imran said, all impediments in the way of the construction industry had been removed and that was the reason the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) was made an authority through legislation.

Imran said the government had undertaken huge efforts for the constructing 5 million houses. “The initiative often drew criticism from the political opponents but now after the breakthrough and path-finding, the journey has started towards realisation of this initiative,” he added.

He stressed that these housing schemes would benefit 40 industries, allied with the construction sector, create job opportunities and push the economic growth. He also praised the housing projects of the Akhuwat Foundation – a non-governmental organisation (NGO) – for the low-income groups.

Imran said income from the multi-billion rupees commercial projects like the one launched in Islamabad for the construction of new Blue Area and other projects to be initiated in Lahore and Karachi soon, would be spent on the construction of housing facilities for the people in slum areas.

The prime minister also spoke about unchecked expansion of cities, which gave rise to serious issues like pollution, lack of basic facilities and food insecurity. To address these issues, he said, the government had decided to implement master plans for the urban areas.

“Karachi has been turned into a jungle of concrete, Islamabad has expanded to Murree and green areas have vanished from Lahore,” he said. “The solution to these issues is the promotion of vertical construction, instead of horizontal buildings, for which laws have been relaxed.”

During his speech, Imran stressed the need of correcting education system. “We have a three-tier system of English, Urdu and religious mediums,” he said. “Different cultures created by such education system are also depicted through the recent women march,” he said, adding that a uniform syllabus will be introduced by next year to address these issues.

Imran also mentioned his government’s another initiative of health card scheme for the poor and said that in his opinion it was the health card scheme that gave the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government another term in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a thumping majority.
He said 5 million people in Punjab had so far been provided with the health card scheme facility and another 1 million would get the card soon under which any family could get free treatment up to Rs720,000 at public and private hospitals.

In the next step, he said, the government would strengthen the health system by offering concessions on duties to private hospitals on the import of medical equipment. He also announced that the government would come up with a legal aid bill under which the state would provide legal aid to the poor, who could not hire a lawyer.

Earlier, the prime minister performed the ground-breaking of the housing projects by unveiling the plaque. Housing Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, Housing Secretary Dr Imran Zaib and FGEHA Director General Waseem Bajwa also spoke on the occasion and highlighted various aspects of the projects.