Land grabbing not to be tolerated: Senate body
By Asghar Ali Mubarak

ISLAMABAD—The Senate Standing Committee on Housing & Works, which met at the Parliament House on Monday under the Chairmanship of Senator Dr. Muhammad Ali Brohi, expressed its firm resolve not to allow any body particularly various land mafias grab piece of the Government land in Lahore and elsewhere in the country and to retrieve the official land currently under occupation by such elements.
This observation was made in connection with a presentation given to the Senate Body on the National Housing Policy (NHP) at the Parliament House today wherein paucity of the available Government land was mentioned as one of the main reasons to carry out new housing schemes for the middle and low-income groups.
The Committee directed the Ministry of Housing & Works to get the 134 Kanals of official land currently under occupation by unscrupulous persons in the Wafaqi Colony Lahore by moving the Court and securing co-operation of Provincial Home Department, Police and other relevant Government agencies adding that the Government land worth billions of rupees must not be taken away by the mafias operating in various parts of the country and they should be dealt with an iron hand. ‘Any slackness on part of the Government in this regard would tantamount to encouraging the land mafias in their wrong doings’, it observed. The Committee further directed the Ministry to obtain rent from the Provincial Police Department for the Government quarters under its occupation since 1989 in Lahore and give a time-frame of three months to shift the Police Station from Wafaqi Colony to its proper premises.
The Committee appreciated the Federal Government’s decision to broaden the scope of Pakistan Housing Authority’s Housing Schemes for federally constituted occupational groups to include all officers of the federal government in BPS-17 and above irrespective of their occupational group / services. It was informed by the Ministry that implementation of the scheme would be made in phases and 234 acres on Kuri Road be utilized for Phase-I of the scheme in relaxation of ICT (Zoning) Regulations.
Earlier, the Secretary Ministry of Housing & Works informed the Committee that the country is currently facing shortage of housing units upto the tune of 07 million, which is likely to increase further in the coming years. Pointing out the gravity of the situation, he said, the Government realizing the potential of “Housing and Construction” as a productive sector of the economy, has declared Housing and Construction as a priority industry and also announced a pragmatic and workable National Housing Policy, which contain a number of short-term and long-term policy measures and incentives for accelerating housing activity, particularly affordable housing for low income groups. The Provincial and Local Governments, he said, shall identify state and other lands in and round urban and rural settlements for housing developments for immediate action.
Land availability shall be enlarged through various innovative measures like land banking on continuous basis to cater to at least 5 to 10 years development plan needs. Financial institutions shall be encouraged to give mortgage loans for housing purposes at market rates.
All commercial bank shall be encouraged to advance loans for housing and housing projects by earmarking a substantial percentage of their loan portfolio like other industrial and commercial projects. Housing refinance window shall be set up at State Bank of Pakistan for long terms funds from multilateral agencies.