400 acres of private constructors' land encroached

MUHAMMAD ALI

KARACHI: What to talk of common citizens, even the Association of Builders and Developers (Abad) has been hit hard by land grabbers, encroaching and occupying prized land before the very eyes of law enforcement agencies and City District Government Karachi (CDGK) officials.

Mohsin Sheikhani, newly elected chairman of Abad in an exhaustive interview told Business Recorder here that around 400 acres of land owned by private constructors had been encroached in and around the city till to date.

Himself a builder of repute, Sheikhani painfully stated that the administration was keeping a blind eye as the land mafia operates under the flag of one political party or other. "But when we approach these political parties to seek relief and their help in getting the encroached land vacated, they outrightly deny any link with the land grabbers."

"Although we have knocked the doors of all concerned authorities including Chief Minister, Governor Sindh, Interior Minister and Minister for Local government in this regard, no outcome has so far been witnessed as per our expectations," he lamented.

"In spite of having clear directives from Governor Sindh Israt-ul-Ibad to take Abad on board in a committee constituted to resolve land grabbing issue, the association is still unable to monitor the progress." He urged the authorities concerned to include the name of Abad in sub-section (O) of section 2 of the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010 to get maximum results. Moreover, Sheikhani said extortion is crumbling the industry to dust, hampering its progress besides creating security risks to the developers. Replying to a question, he said the formation of Crisis Management Cell (CMC), which is going to be inaugurated by Interior Minister Rehman Malik by next week, has created a positive impact as extortion threats have decreased to 50 per cent.

He said the association is keen to pay its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the betterment of the society. For the purpose, the ABAD is presently contemplating to launch the low-cost housing scheme to meet the growing demand of shelters at affordable price.

"The proposal of low-cost housing scheme is in initial phase and the association is going to approach all concerned authorities including KESC, KWSB, MDA, LDA, etc to facilitate them for the construction of 100, 000 units for homeless at reasonable price."

He said the dream of low-income group would to own home would now be materialized through low cost housing scheme, which could be built in scheme 43 or 45. He said the price of 400 sq-ft apartment would not be more than Rs0.6 million.

Abad is also going to establish developers' foundation to promote charity work among the members and the proposal to adopt one of the government schools with the aim to provide quality education to the lower segment of the society is under consideration. Sharing his views for the revival of the industry, Muhammad Arif Siddik, Vice Chairman of ABAD said the government should direct all financial institutions to lift negative profession and negative areas embargos from their housing finance policy.

"The financial institutions have evolved their own negative profession and negative areas lists for housing finance, despite the directives of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to allocate 5 percent of the portfolios for housing sector," he said.

Muhammad Saleem Kassim Patel, regional chairman Abad said the construction industry has social and moral repercussions.

Patel said the low housing society would generate 7.5 million direct and 5 million indirect jobs.

"Despite the announcement made by the government to start Mortgage Refinancing Company (MRC) by July-August, 2011, the same is still falling into abeyance," he said.

He urged the government to take remedial measures to avert the upsurge in construction materials' prices, saying that the industry could not be put on right track unless the prices of raw material would be stable. He said the industry has not only capable to increase the GDP growth but also increasing market share of other allied industries by generating new demands for them. He said the construction industry has collateral impact on more than 100 industries besides having capacity to generate skilled and unskilled employment. He demanded of the government to implement National Housing Policy with its true spirit to facilitate the stakeholders at maximum.