Efforts on to address housing problem: minister

Minister for Housing and Works, Syed Safwanullah said on Friday that the government is making all out efforts to fulfil the housing needs of the people with special focus on the down trodden. Speaking in a PTV programme he said, it will however take some time to clear the backlog of the past fifty years.
He said no government in the past took housing problem as an issue of national importance so no planing was done to address it. For the first time the government had done comprehensive planning to ensure availability of shelter to every citizen and the process was fast moving ahead, the Minister said. The housing policy of 2001 reflects the willingness of the government to address this important issue, he said.
Alongside with public sector efforts, private sector was also being motivated and facilitated to play its role he said adding the prospects were encouraging. To a question he said, although most housing societies did not come in the orbit of his ministry, yet the ministry on the directives of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz prepared a comprehensive report on the functioning of societies.
Implementation of the recommendation made in this report had been started and conditions would hopefully improve in the future. It was also the responsibility of provincial and local governments to monitor the activities of housing societies functioning under their jurisdiction, the Minister said. He said to feed the housing needs of the government employees in the Federal Capital, different steps had been taken.
A scheme of 1000 housing flats was under completion in Sector G-11/4 wherein the government employees would be given houses on ownership basis. He said the G-14 and G-13 Sectors were at present under the process of development where thousands flats would be built for the government servants so that they could own a house before retirement. The Minister said the government would invest nothing in these schemes rather they would be sponsored by commercial institutions and the allotees would pay price in easy and affordable instalments.
To another question the Minister said that land acquisition act was being amended to make it at par with new conditions. Responding yet to another question he said the building code for Islamabad and Rawalpindi had already been finalised and delivered to relevant departments. Now the builders would have to get certification of the experts at every stage of construction, he informed.