Homeless people sleeping under the shades of tree, that line main city roads, look like mummified corpses enveloped in weather-beaten brownish cotton sheets soiled in Karachi's ever present fine dust particles. It seems as if these homeless people have been carelessly left to the vagaries of nature by their gods to become common sight in summer nights for those who do not have hearts for the poor but desire to continue to be their benefactors.
But the concerns of these benefactors apart, those who spend their nights in the open and sleep on roadsides and in public parks, are not necessarily poor and are not necessarily those who can not afford to buy bare minimum succour and contentment for their families. Many of them are either part of organised groups of illegal land occupiers, beggars, squatters and cheaters or are newly arrived simpletons from outside Karachi.
Irrespective of their notoriety and status they need a place to live which is least expensive and most convenient to occupy. These professional occupiers of public and private properties have dispossessed the needy of their rights to ask form the civic bodies for shelter and other related essentials of life.
This situation presents two immediate problems: one is the necessity of differentiating between the rouges and the real and then rehabilitation of the genuinely homeless people; and the other is the indifference of those who are in power and responsible for looking after the welfare of the poor.
First the need. The need for housing units in Karachi is growing at a rate faster than it is growing in other cities of Pakistan. Taking into account influx in Karachi, its population is growing at the rate of seven percent as compared to 2.7 percent national population growth rate. The unevenness in the population growth rates in different cities of Pakistan has not restricted its adverse effects to housing needs only.
It has created shortage of health facilities, education facilities and squeezed employment opportunities. The requirements of human settlements are not restricted to these few areas but have a number of other issues that concern the town planners as well as the demographers. Needs of human beings are directly related to the nature of housing units in a society.
People coming to Karachi in search of employment prefer to live nearer to their workplaces and those who do not find a suitable accommodation of their choice, lodge themselves in nearby parks, open plots and footpaths. Some of them pitch tents to shield their families against the scorching sun and the rains, which is rarity in Karachi. This setting up of temporary tents for families gradually turns into kutcha settlements near workplaces and gives rise to civic problems of complicated nature.
These homeless people are there in the city to earn and remit their entire earnings back to their native villages and towns from where they have come. Back home their families invest these remittances in housing units, purchase of agriculture lands and repayments of loans, which the family might have taken to meet urgent expenditures.
Marriages of their children also consume a sizeable amount from their earnings and savings. They seldom purchase dwellings outside their native towns, even at a modest price, as they do not know when they will return to their families. Though the need of this group of people still exists but it does not pose a threat of homelessness to them as they have their homes somewhere in Pakistan. If they live in huts in villages, their needs are met to a large extent and a mud house is a villa for them.
If the population living in the open and able to afford a modest housing unit is also taken into consideration the need of housing units in Karachi with bare minimum civic amenities exceeds 600,000 units each year. If taken into account the backlog of housing units of the past five years, the builders and developers are of the opinion that 1.5 million units are needed to meet the immediate requirement of two-bedroom housing units to shelter a small family having five members.
This figure also includes children and couples at present living with their parents or sharing accommodations with others. These people need housing units. This backlog of small housing units seems difficult to meet in the near future.
However, the permanent dwellers of Karachi and its adjoining villages are in dire need of 400,000 housing units each year. Giving this estimate of housing need in Karachi, builders and developers said that the target was not difficult to achieve provided the public sector came forward with supporting hands.
Private sector indicates that the most discouraging factor for its lacklustre approach toward construction activity is the lack of infrastructure in the areas designated for low-cost housing projects and inconsistent housing policy to improve it. In their opinion laws regulating construction of houses, ownership and acquisition of land are whimsical. In fact these laws coupled with the greed of the land owning authorities have made it impossible for a man to purchase a piece of land for constructing a house of his own.
The government projects such as low-cost housing scheme in Surjani Town, Landhi and Korangi Township are subjects for case studies to find out what went wrong with the public sector desire to construct low-cost housing units for the shelter-less people. Thousands of flats are lying vacant in these localities for want of water, electricity, gas and road networks.
Flats constructed in Surjani Town are lying vacant and the money invested by the government and the individual purchaser has gone waste. According to Managing Director of the House Building Finance Corporation Sohail Osman Ali, "In Surjani Town, Karachi, the worst can be seen. As houses and flats are not habitable, 96 percent of HBFC's 7,800 customers in this township are in default to HBFC for Rs 388 million. The flats are lying vacant and the recovery of the funds invested in this project through loaning to individuals is stuck up."
The situation in other areas is not different. Even in the private sector more than 10,000 flats are waiting to be sold out. Those who have paid part payments of some of these apartments, have either decided to forget their investment or are waiting for the provision of water and electricity made available at these flat sites.
Many people who have invested their lifetime savings in small housing units, often referred to as small apartments are not hopeful of getting back their investments and many who dreamed a home of their choice are now disheartened and financially broken to buy another unit. In many cases purchasers and builders have gone to courts to settle their differences emanating from the frequent changes in dates of completion of project, increase in price and provision of civic amenities.
A decision as to who should be held responsible for the breach of contract, if there is any, and who should be made responsible for the inefficiency of the government- the benefactor - in providing infrastructure to the builders of these units seems difficult in the near future.
In addition to the inefficiency, which is generally attributed to the civic bodies for its inability to provide water, power, gas and sewerage facilities to dully approved housing projects, a look at the law governing ownership rights of land in certain areas that cater to the need of the poor seems in order.
The Sindh Urban Land Ordinance 2001 had had negative impact on low-cost housing projects only by taking one hasty action against small plot owners in some of the areas of urban Karachi. It has discouraged construction of low-cost housing units in duly approved areas on the one hand and on the other caused colossal loss to the only house financing government agency, HBFC, in the country. Though more than 16 financial institutions are offering housing loans to people but they all have become sensitive to SULO 2001 except HBFC.
The SULO 2001 has minimized chances for low-cost housing activities in Karachi as institutions providing housing finance do not wish to advance money in areas susceptible to SULO 2001.
The HBFC chief says, "Under the Sindh Urban Land Ordinance 2001 the government has cancelled land title of 2500 families. Its effect on HBFC disbursement is negative. Because of the cancellation of land title, HBFC has had to block disbursement of over Rs 360 million to 2,500 families. Furthermore, there are potential clients for HBFC, who have been living in building for over eight years but can not obtain loan for house renovation as a result of this Ordinance, they have lost title to their properties."
He said that housing projects needed mortgage financing on cheaper rates for which the governments would have to play a leading role and look into teething problems that are hampering movement in this direction.
"The National Housing Policy envisages stamp duty, registration fee etc., to be a total of one percent with nil percent for mortgage finance but it has still not happened. This can be one of the key reasons why mortgage finance is only one percent of GDP in Pakistan."
As a whole the housing activity in Pakistan is in total disarray and from making land availability system infallible to accessibility to housing finance should be reviewed so that obstacles are removed and needy are helped. The commercial exploitation of land for housing is another issue that calls for government's attention.
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