Your kind attention Prime Minister Sir

Head of PPP Media Cell
Prime minister of Pakistan’s help is solicited by the retired senior government servants who are at the brink of terrible denouement because their dream of living in their own homes looked a far-fetched cry in the face of Pakistan Housing Authority’s (PHA) criminal negligence to execute Kuri Housing Project, Islamabad, launched in 2011.
The scheme envisaged the handing over of residential accommodation in finished form to the successful applicants after the three years, 2014. To the utter dismay of all, the PHA has failed to build even a part of infrastructure after lapse of more than three years not to speak of delivering the housing units. It may be pointed out that the potential owners observed the payment schedule to cover the cost thus meeting their part of the obligation. Even today, prime minister Sir, the infrastructure built is less than 5% of the total although the PHA has received the payment to the extent of 68% from the retirees. Infrastructure total cost is the 20% of the total cost of the housing units.
The abject indifference of the mandarins and their state of denial beg all descriptions and thus bringing bad repute for the elected government. There is no doubt that the PHA would continue to play on the delaying tactics on purpose because the people working there have developed interests and would not like to exhibit any modicum of interests in its completion. The honourable prime minister may be pleased to direct the authorities to fulfil their part of the agreement and those who are responsible for the delay should be taken to task to pin down the tendency of complacency and inaptitude to hurt others. The accountability should be detrimental as their procrastination has taken toll at the expense of the affected parties. The submission deserves the sympathetic and favourable intervention of the prime minister on urgent basis because meetings with the relevant authorities in the past have fallen on their deaf ear. Their promises to expedite the civil work on the project proved synonymous to platitudes but no follow up action in the real sense of the word. The situation is not likely to improve because the utter lack of commitment and appreciation of the predicaments of the retired government servants by the PHA.
Alternatively, it is suggested that the retired officers may be given plots to build houses by themselves and the PHA should be directed to confine its role of completing the infrastructure only. The languishing matter thus can be resolved amicably and the government servants (Retd) can take sigh of relief.
In the absence of the intervention of the Chief Executive, the retired government servants’ dream to live in their homes will remain a forlorn hope. Their life time savings going down the drain will inflict double jeopardy on them in the face of escalation of cost of construction. This vortex of injustice could only be reverted with the intervention of the prime minister. Please step in; the retired government servants will be beholden to you for the rest of their life.
In Pakistan, unfortunately, the mandarins have abjectly faulted in addressing the problems of the people who are at the receiving end. The predicaments have been on the rise with the passage of time and the vicious circle have straitjacketed every one of us especially to those who have no clout to turn the adverse circumstances into an enabling environment for the culmination of their legitimate interests. The system in vogue is heavily weighted against those who are undergoing the period of evening years of their lives, senior citizens. The cumbersome system of pension, lack of social security programme to provide cover to the needy, pathetic health facilities followed by inaction and inattention make the lives miserable of all and sundry especially of the elderly whose miseries have been further compounded due to the weakening of the family as an institution. Unfortunately, the existing conditions aggravate the insecurity among this section of society as the narrative of welfare state looks a crude joke.
National Housing Authority (NHA) of the Ministry of Housing and Works, Government of Pakistan, is notoriously known for its appalling apathy, complacency and inaptitude because of its favorite tactics of delaying the projects on one pretext or another to the disadvantage of the public exchequer and of the legitimate beneficiaries. Its track record bears it out quite clearly because it cannot present a single case whereby it has completed the project on time. The inordinate delay shoots up the cost of the projects and also the duration of miseries of the real stakeholders who are at the receiving end.
It is relevant to mention here the background of the Kuri Housing Project, Islamabad, with few details for the convenience of the readers. The applications were invited by PHA even without acquiring land from CDA. It got land after couple of years of launching the scheme with fanfare in the form of media campaign. Originally, it announced 150 acres of land at Kuri to build housing units for the government servants in categories one, two and three. Actually, it is 90 acres land. The housing units were to be completed within three years and delivered to the applicants in 2014. It was conceived on the pattern of Army Welfare Trust that builds houses for the retired army officers and handed over to them soon after their retirement from the active service. Its success in providing residential accommodation to army officers is unblemished and the system has been working quite well since its inception.
In this case, the PHA’s Engineering Directorate faulted miserably because it could not sort out the basic technical details of the site during the long three years, 2008-2011 hampering the commencement of civil work on the project. As a matter of fact, the engineering department of PHA has neither the experience nor the expertise to undertake housing projects of such specifications. It had dealt with the housing projects based on flats system which were relatively easy to handle. It will be appropriate if the Engineering Directorate confines itself to the development of infrastructure — roads, sewerage, water supply and others which are the part of the scheme. The construction of the housing units should be outsourced and the allottees should be given the choice to build the housing units at their own in accordance with the code of building in the federal capital. The precedent is there of I/8 when the PHA was directed to hand over the plots and the civil servants (owners) built their houses without any complication and living comfortably ever since.
Now, the authorities are arguing that work on the project is halted because the director general has been transferred and the work will resume only after the appointment of new director general. It is an argument that reflected very poorly on the government because the work on the development projects should not be impeded because institutions do not stop functioning with the transfer of its head. What is stopping the concerned Ministry and the Establishment Division to post DG in the interest of the project?
My apprehension is that PHA is pushing the government servants (Retd) against the wall and they may be constrained to take extreme action of protesting in front of Press Club, Islamabad, Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat, Parliament or in front of other forums to draw the attention to their plight. The prime minister may be pleased to direct the minister for Housing and Works to resolve the issue at the earliest by holding meetings with the stakeholders in quick succession.
The writer is also former Secretary Information
muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com