Govt employees face shortage of housing in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: The housing shortage for federal employees, who are waiting for official accommodation, is reaching alarming proportions as the figure of people on the waiting list has reached 22,709.

This shortfall is attributed mainly to the ban on construction of new government housing units since 1995.

Currently, the Estate Office has only 17,497 government-owned accommodations in the federal capital.

“As many as 6,807 federal government employees have applied for allotment of government accommodation since June 2013,” an official in the ministry of housing and works said.

He said that the government accommodations are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the government employees in the federal capital.

“Presently, there is a shortfall of approximately 9-10 million houses in the country and the present government is making concerted efforts to bridge the gap,” the official added.

He said that federal cabinet imposed a ban on new construction of government accommodation in 1995 and the matter of construction of government accommodation was taken up on public-private partnership.

In this regard, he said a proposal to demolish the existing government accommodation in Sector F-6/4 and construction of 10-storey flats in its place, was submitted to Prime Minister last year.

The Prime Minister’s Office had directed the concerned authorities to re-submit the summary through the Cabinet Division after consultation with all the stakeholders, the official added.

He said that accordingly, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) were requested to present their views.

To a question, he said the ministry will construct around 500,000 housing units for the low-income families throughout the country under Apna Ghar Scheme.

Under the scheme, he said, the government would provide houses to homeless and shelterless families by constructing low-cost units on state land in different localities.

“To ensure cost-effective access to credit for housing, the government will pick up a portion of the financing cost as a subsidy,” the official added.

He said in order to commence execution work for launching the housing project, Apna Ghar Limited Company has been registered with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.(SECP)

“All the initial work of the project has been completed and sufficient chunks of state land have been identified for the launching of the project,” he said.