Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also guarantees the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. In international human rights law the right to housing is regarded as a free standing right. The Yogyakarta Principles (named after an Indonesian city where a convention on housing was held in 2001) on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity affirm that "everyone has the right to adequate housing, including protection from eviction, without discrimination and that States shall a) take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure security of tenure and access to affordable, habitable, accessible, culturally appropriate and safe housing, not including shelters and other emergency accommodation, without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or material or family status; b) take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to prohibit the execution of evictions that are not in conformity with their international human rights obligations, and ensure that adequate and effective legal or other appropriate remedies are available to any person claiming that a right to protection against forced evictions has been violated or is under threat of violation, including the right to resettlement, which includes the right to alternative land of better or equal quality and to adequate housing, without discrimination."
The right to housing is also enshrined in Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 16 of the European Social Charter (Article 31 of the Revised European Social charter) and in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The right to adequate housing was a key issue at the 1996 Habitat meeting in Istanbul and a main theme in the Istanbul Agreement and Habitat Agenda. Paragraph 61 of the agenda identifies the steps required by governments to "promote, protect and ensure the full and progressive realization of the right to adequate housing". The 2001 Habitat meeting, known as Istanbul +5, reaffirmed the 1996 Istanbul Agreement and Habitat Agenda and established the UN Human Settlement Program to promote the right to housing in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Known as UN-HABITAT, the program is the most important international forum for the right to housing. It is tasked with promoting housing rights through awareness campaigns, and to develop benchmarks and monitoring systems.
However, over the last 72 years the ruling elite in Pakistan has continued to neglect this aspect of a basic tenet of human rights. Affordable housing has remained a thing of a life- long unattainable desire for most Pakistanis all these years. There is a backlog of about ten million housing units in the country of which around 3.5 to 4 million are in the urban region and most for low-income groups. However, since on an average only 300,000 housing units are being built annually, the backlog continues to bulge. That is perhaps why 68 per cent of Pakistan's population has only one per cent of total housing stocks, whereas 56 per cent of housing stock is meant for 12 per cent of the upper income segments. Indeed, there is a huge untapped market and unmet demand for affordable housing units in the urban areas particularly for the labor classes and low and lower-middle income segments.
Katchi abadis and shanty towns have sprouted all over our cities to serve those who fail to find an affordable shelter in the cities and towns as the demand for housing continues to expand while the supply remains too far behind. And every now and then one witnesses the heartless official campaigns of eviction of the poorest of the poor from such katchi abadis and shanty towns.
Despite the huge demand for housing, the overall contribution of housing finance has remained very low in Pakistan - less than one percent of the GDP. The stakeholders argue that multiple risks impact the performance of the housing finance sector. Lack of transparency in property markets is said to be a key constraint. Despite the ample potential of business and social need of housing, the highly challenging business environment usually prevents international investors, local businessmen and even ordinary people to save and invest in housing enterprises.
The market has been unable to meet the growing demand to supply housing stock at affordable prices. An individual earning between Rs20,000 to 25,000 per month (working in the public/private sector or self-employed) and responsible for maintaining his/her nuclear family as well as members of the extended family would save (after all expenses relating to rent, food, utilities, transportation and miscellaneous are deducted) no more than Rs1,500. With the average person saving Rs1,500 and the average 80 square yard plot costing Rs700,000, it would take nearly 40 years before one could afford such a plot. The result is the current housing crisis Pakistan is faced with.
The recent announcement of a long list of tax and other concessions to the construction industry, including the fact that the real estate activity has been granted the status of an industry would surely encourage increased investment activity in the housing sector. And what is most seductive about this package is that it grants generous amnesty in exchange for investing money in construction. No questions asked about the money to be invested in house building activity. But then the fixed rate tax being applied to the new house building activity ensures immense benefits for even those who wish to invest their white money in house building.
And mindful of the fact that the investors would continue to avoid housing for poor, the government has at the same time announced a public sector housing scheme called Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme carrying a subsidy of Rs. 30 billion. Already thousands have registered to avail the benefits of this scheme.
On the face of it, the entire baggage of concessions announced for kick-starting the house building industry contains just the right kind of financial and other incentives in kind for providing the low-and middle-income population of the country access to affordable housing. But minus the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, the government plot seems to get lost in the usual dark hole of private sector labyrinth. And it seems that the private sector part of the 'dream' scheme has been designed by a group of very clever private minds to benefit the rich and mighty, the real ruling elite in Pakistan and not the poorer section of society. It appears as if by the end of this scheme, that is by September 30, 2022 the rich will have built for themselves more luxurious villas and flats whitening in the process billions of their undeclared tainted money without having to pay legitimate taxes on these declared black money while the labor classes and low-and middle-income groups would continue to be denied access to affordable housing.
The private sector has never honestly responded to any of the past amnesty scheme for declaring their black loot and it would, it is feared, continue to do so even while the new house building scheme is being implemented. In fact the possibility that it would make another big killing employing the new scheme to use the real estate for camouflaging even more of the tax evaded and unearned incomes from bribery, smuggling and black marketing cannot be ruled out.
Therefore, in order to save the interests of the poorer sections of population and enable them to have easy access to affordable housing, the government as a first step could document all land available in the public and private sectors, digitize the documentation rendering ownership beyond an iota of doubt thus making it bankable so that land owners using the house-to-be-built as a collateral to borrow at concessional rates repayable over 40 years in easy instalments. At the same time the government should ban construction of houses on land beyond the size of 120 sq. yards and restrict only vertical housing schemes and no stand- alone houses in urban regions. And to deny the rent seeking unscrupulous elements a readily available safe haven for hiding their loot, the government should make it legally almost impossible for private sector to invest in house building activity declaring it a strictly public sector business and divert the private sector investment to building physical infrastructure like roads, bridges, railway tracks and the like.
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