‘Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar’ PM touts housing initiative

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday while terming the Rs100 billion approval in the Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar initiative as a big moment said that the elite mindset has caused heavy damages to the country by not allowing inclusive development.

Khan, while addressing a ceremony to mark the approval, said the initiative such as Mera Pakistan MeraGhar, should have been launched earlier. He also announced that as the economy grows, subsidies would be increased to facilitate the common man to purchase house in their monthly income through easy installments.

The prime minister said the project will also uplift the economy as it will give a boom to construction activities in the country. He said that such initiative should have happened much earlier as the salaried class cannot afford to purchase their own house.

“It was never thought about, that the poor, who could not afford to purchase a house, how they could be helped,” said the prime minister, adding that he learnt during his interaction with the overseas Pakistanis was that one of the most important things which they wished was to earn money abroad and construct a house in Pakistan.

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“Pakistanis who worked as labours overseas had one dream — to build a house for themselves and their families,” the prime minister said, regretting that the past governments did not pay heed to this issue.

“Why we did not think about it. The problem with our country is that the governments are being formed, but the decision makers do not think about the common man,” said Khan, adding that they only think about the elite who can afford to purchase a house by giving cash.

He further said that if the elite class gets access to English medium then nobody thinks about changing the curriculum. However, now for the first time in the country’ history there would be single curriculum for all.

The same is with hospitals as the decision makers were only going to private hospitals or aboard for treatment, so nobody was thinking about the poor and public hospitals deterioration. “The elite mindset has caused heavy damages to us. The development of our country was never inclusive,” said Prime Minister Khan, adding that a small portion got richer and the common man remained there, and it caused the country heavily.

The premier said that Pakistanis should get lessons from the development of China as it becomes a global power in just 30 years after uplifting all of its segments at once. Pakistan has a 220 million population and should have been a powerful country. It should have been a bigger market where big multinationals should come here. But when small portion of the population have buying power and more people are in poverty then the country could not move forward, he added.

Lower income people could not get a chance to construct or own their houses as it was difficult because the system could not coup it. Further, the banking system and atmosphere was also not supportive and the common man was afraid of approaching the banks, said PM Khan, adding that the common people consider themselves as aliens and the system was not accommodating them. PM Khan said that the banks have changed themselves as poor are getting money in six months, and hoped that by marketing it further, more people would come for availing the facility.

He further said that there is a huge demand of people to have their own house. It will bring a change and will help in the growth of the economy. He further said that there were too many hurdles and the first was foreclosure law. “If it was pending from 90s it means that it was never government motivation to win this case in the court,” said PM Khan, adding that the second thing was of high interest rate, at which, common man could not afford loan. We subsidised it and will further increase the subsidies with the growth of economy, he added.

The prime minister, on the occasion, handed over keys of houses to people getting loans from banks for construction of houses. He also distributed letters of appreciation to the banks showing remarkable performance in issuance of loans.

Speaking on the occasion, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin said this initiative will enable poor and low-income families to fulfil the dream of having their own homes.

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He further said that there were two major issues in turning this dream into a reality. First, there was no foreclosure law due to which, banks could not take the risk as besides the money, it takes a lengthy tenure of 20-30 years. Due to bad management in the economy, while taking loans, interest rate remained high in the range of 12-15 percent and above that charging three-four percent, so the loan for house would charge the person 18 percent.

Therefore, people could not go for it. It was made possible only through the relentless efforts of the prime minister. He said that application against Rs260 billion were received, approval was granted for Rs106 billion.

He said that these loans are less than half a percent of the economy which is Rs54 trillion. India had the same system like Pakistan but they corrected it 10 years back. Their housing loans are 10 percent of their economy. If we want to achieve the 10 percent, the loans should be Rs5,500 billion in the next 5-7 years. There should be a target of one to 1.5 percent of the GDP per year to reach the destination from which the country would grow, said Tarin, adding that the prime minister is providing an enabling law and banks should take it forward.

Governor State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir said the banks have granted approval to Rs109 billion for this project, while Rs32 billion have been disbursed so far. He further said that people are encouraged due to the good model of the initiative.

There were hurdles in the start of this initiative. In the month just passed, on average, the banks granted approval for Rs4.2 billion per week and disbursed Rs1.7 billion.

In the first six months of the scheme, banks granted approval for only Rs20 billion and in the next six months, the figure was Rs80 billion and the speed was increased by four times, he added.

Chairman of Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority Lt General (retired) General Anwar Ali Hyder appreciated the approval and disbursement rate of the housing loans. He said six months ago, there was no concept of providing housing loans to the low-income group as no one ever paid attention to the segment.

He also appreciated the SBP and private banks for facilitating the common man by easing the farm and loan approval process, adding that now the microfinance banks could also participate in the program.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021