PM summons meeting of task force for housing today

ISLAMABAD: In order to get briefing about progress been made so far for implementation of  “Naya Pakistan Housing Program” PM Imran Khan has summoned a meeting of the Task Force on housing on Friday (today).

Ministers for housing, finance and planning and development, representatives of the task force hailing from all four provinces and Punjab’s senior minister, Aleem Khan will be in attendance.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will be briefed about the progress made so far over “Naya Pakistan Housing Program”, the incumbent government intends to finalize framework for the project within 100 days, as it promised  doing so, said well informed sources.

On October 10, Prime Minister Imran Khan formally launched a low-cost housing scheme named ‘Naya Pakistan Housing Program’ as part of his party’s election manifesto.

The government has promised to provide five million houses to low-income people under the Naya Pakistan Housing Project.

The prime minister expressed confidence that the program would not only help realise the dream of a shelter for the poor but also create employment opportunities. It will also attract local and foreign investment and invigorate forty related industries.

The programme Initially launched for eight districts, has now been expanded upto 19 cities across the country to fulfill housing needs of the poor segments of the society.

“It was decided to include two more cities from South Punjab namely Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh in Naya Pakistan Housing Programme following which the number of total cities under this programme would be 19” reported the state-run wire service citing an official of Ministry of Housing and Works.

Initially, he said that this programme was launched in seven districts including Sukkur, Quetta, Gilgit, Muzaffarabad, Swat, Islamabad, Faisalabad, but it was further expanded to ten more cities including Lahore, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Layyah, Bahawalpur, Vehari, Kasur, Sialkot, Jhelum and Gujranwala.

“Now it has been decided to include to Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh in this programme,” he maintained.

He said that National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) had started accepting forms from citizens applying for a house under the Naya Pakistan Housing Program from October 22 for seven districts announced in the initial phase. For remaining 12 cites, the process to submit registration form will start from January 2019, he added.

It is worth mentioning here that five million houses would be constructed under this scheme and Federal Housing Task Force and the government of Punjab have completed the initial preparations for the project.