Govt mulling regularisation of illegal housing societies: sources

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is considering the regularisation of all those housing societies that meet the legal standards set by the competent authorities.

During a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan gave his nod for the regularisation of   housing societies, well-placed sources said on Wednesday.

The illegal housing societies will be regularised after a commission reviews all legal matters related to the process, the sources added.

Meanwhile, in the meeting, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar raised the issue of a ban on new utility connections in Islamabad. He noted that a committee in this regard had been formed in 2019 and voiced concern over a report not being submitted to date.

Taking notice of the issue, the prime minister ordered that the ban on  new gas and electricity connections in the federal capital be lifted.

69% of housing societies in Pakistan unregistered

Last year in December, the government revealed that over 69% of the country's housing societies are not registered, Geo News reported. 

According to official documents, out of a total of 8,767 housing societies, 6,000 were not registered with the concerned institutions.

These 6,000 housing societies had been made on bogus papers or their papers were incomplete.

Over 4,000 cases of fraud and corruption were registered against 500 societies. These cases of fraud amounted to more than Rs300 billion.

Therefore, only 2,767 housing societies were registered in the country, with the size of the real estate market estimated to be about Rs15 to Rs20 trillion.