By Our Web Desk
ISLAMABAD– Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday allotted 1,008 flats and 500 houses for poor workers and widows on low-cost mortgage in a bid to uplift the weaker segments of society.
The Prime Minister performed balloting at the site of affordable residences constructed in the suburbs of Islamabad, under the Naya Pakistan Housing Project carried out by Workers Welfare Fund and Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.
Constructed in Zone V of the Federal Capital and around 15 minutes drive from the Islamabad Expressway, the multi-storey units will provide a decent living for small families with electricity, natural gas and water supply.
The flats and houses will be handed over at 10 percent payment of total cost. The housing units, each with a living room, two bedrooms a kitchen and a bath, have been constructed under the Workers Welfare Fund and the Naya Pakistan Housing has provided a subsidy of Rs 300,000 for each unit. The Labour Complex once completed will straddle over an area of 2,560 kanals of prime land huddled between the posh Naval Anchorage and Gulberg Greens.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the project was in line with the vision of facilitating the lower class which faced hardship in owning a house, particularly in urban areas.
“Naya Pakistan is in fact a vision of empowering weaker segments of the society through economic emancipation and provision of basic necessities of life,” he said. The Prime Minister said under the mortgage system, the rent paid would be converted into the installments of the total cost of the house or flat.
He said the government would give Rs 0.3 million subsidy on each house and would also ensure that the markup rate did not exceed by five per cent. He lauded the efforts of the team of the Workers Welfare Fund for reviving the project that lingered on for the last 25 years and regretted that the previous government never gave priority to the working class.
Imran Khan acknowledged that without the support of banks, the project could not be accomplished.The passage of new foreclosure law for banks took two years to get approval by the courts, he added. He said in the first phase, over 1,500 flats and houses would be distributed and the same number would be replicated in the second phase as well. The project will be expanded to other parts of the country, he added.
Imran Khan said owning a house was one’s big dream, adding that even rich countries could not give away houses free of cost but on the mortgage. He said the government gave concessions to the construction industry during a pandemic that resulted in a boom, including an increase in demand of cement. He said the construction industry would generate massive employment opportunities, expressing hope that the step would lead to wealth creation and strengthening of the economy.
The Prime Minister inspected the constructed houses and flats and also planted a sapling in the premises. He also laid the foundation stone for the next phase of 1,500 more flats and houses.
