President Pervez Musharraf has said that the government is committed to give a boost to the construction industry through revolutionary changes in order to benefit the common man.
He was addressing a meeting comprising representatives of the construction industry, contractors, property developers and other stakeholders here on Thursday.
Provincial chief ministers, federal finance, housing, industry and investment and privatisation ministers, State Bank governor, federal secretaries of the concerned ministries, heads of financial institutions and senior officials were also present on the occasion.
President Musharraf said that all the concerned must work together to achieve the common goal for boosting the construction industry, which would help in improving the economy, provide jobs and reduce poverty.
In fact, it is one of the biggest sources of job creation, he said, adding that boost to the housing industry would benefit more than 50 downstream industries.
The president heard the points of view, difficulties and problems being faced by the participants, along with recommended solutions.
Representatives of developers, builders and contractors identified land acquisition, infrastructure, timely provision of utility services as well as other problem areas.
They suggested that there should be uniform building laws, reduction in transfer fee of houses, issuance of NOCs by a single agency instead of several such bodies, elimination of discretionary authority of officials, review of rent control ordinance and measures to reduce cost of construction machinery and raw materials.
The chief ministers assured that the problem of NOCs would be streamlined, land transfer fee and rent control ordinance issues would be examined and improved.
Regarding land acquisition, they said, there were certain genuine land developers but a large number of unscrupulous societies were creating problems by just purchasing land and then selling the plots at a high premium.
The president said that it was the right of the small landowner to get fair price of their land and at the same time protected from exploitation by the land mafia.
He, however, said that legal process be initiated against societies acquiring land and not starting development of the area.
Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said there was shortage of hotels, office space, tourist resorts in various parts of the country.
Referring to the coastline of Balochistan and Gwadar Port, he said, tremendous opportunities existed for the builders and developers for focussing on such projects, which would create economic activities and job opportunities.
The president in his concluding remarks said many pertinent issues were raised during the meeting.
He directed that land procurement problems must be resolved. Similarly, he said the chief ministers should look into rent laws and tax issues in order to bring about a balance in them. He said the rent laws should be balanced so that the owners' rights were also protected.
President Musharraf dwelt at length on the points regarding delay in availability of utility services in the new housing schemes and said he would hold separate meetings in Karachi and Lahore to redress these problems on the spot.
He directed LDA, KDA, CDA, RDA and other such agencies to adopt Defence Housing Authority model by computerising their records for ensuring efficiency and transparency.