The Cabinet has refused to convert Army Welfare Housing Scheme (AWHS) into Defence Housing Scheme (DHS) without the consent of other relevant ministries, sources told Business Recorder here on Friday.
The Defence Division, in its summary said that AWHS is a welfare project of Adjutant General's Branch (Welfare and Rehabilitation Directorate, GHQ, Rawalpindi), and is a self-financing scheme being run on no-profit-no-loss basis. However, some time back, it was felt that the Army Welfare Housing Scheme, Morgah, should be converted into a separate legal entity, so as to run its affairs more smoothly and independently, like Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Karachi and Lahore, sources said.
In 1997, Army Welfare Officers Housing Scheme, Morgah, was converted into a legal body with the approval of Chief of Army Staff.
Recently, the Defence Ministry said, AWHS has been renamed as 'Defence Housing Islamabad' (DHI). The scheme is spread over an area of about 20719 kanals with approximately 10,000 members, and has the potential to expand further. So far, the scheme has two phases--Phase-I and Phase-II--along River Soan in Rawalpindi and in Kahuta triangle, respectively. The two phases are not contiguous and are approximately three km apart, Defence Ministry said.
Sources said that draft Ordinance for the establishment of DHI had been forwarded to the Ministry of Law and Justice for vetting which refused to clear the draft till the approval of Cabinet.
When the matter was brought to the Cabinet for approval, some members opposed the proposal, saying that why the Defence Ministry did not seek comments from the concerned ministries before moving to the Cabinet. After thorough discussion, the Cabinet decided not to approve the draft Ordinance until the proposal is approved by other relevant ministries.
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