Major housing project to be launched next month: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that a major housing project will be launched next month to provide five million housing units to the low income segments of the society.

Addressing an international Housing Conference here on Thursday, he said private sector will be involved in the project.

He said constructing five million houses is a cumbersome task but once initiated the number of houses to be constructed will be increased every year.

He said the project will directly benefit forty different industries related with the construction business. On this occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between Pakistan and the World Bank for cooperation in housing sector.

The Prime Minister said the World Bank has itself decided to support the housing project. He said positive response has also been received from overseas Pakistanis besides Chinese and Malaysian companies for the project.

He said the houses will be constructed by the private sector and the government will fully facilitate it. He said people in Pakistan pay less tax and more charity because they do not have trust over governments.

He, however, hoped, that people will now pay their due taxes as there is a credible government in the country.

He said the government is going to launch a plan to regularize slums in different cities, including Islamabad. He said houses, flats and commercial centers will be constructed by developers following the models of Turkey and India.

He said new construction in urban centers will be vertical to avert threat to food security.

He said the task force will learn from Singapore Model about it. He said the government also plans to establish a land bank retrieving land from land grabbers and also the dead capital of government departments.

He said land worth five hundred billion rupees has so far been recovered from the land grabbers.

He, however, clarified that the houses of the poor people will not be demolished under this campaign.

The Prime Minister said affordable houses will be constructed in the tribal districts through micro-financing.