438 ‘illegal’ housing societies in Rawalpindi division

Islamabad : There are 438 illegal housing societies in Rawalpindi Division that are minting money from the innocent people using advertisements and digital platforms.

According to the latest data compiled by the Rawalpindi administration, out of these housing societies 318 are in Rawalpindi district and 98 are in Attock district and all of them have ‘illegal’ status as they have not fulfilled the requirements necessary to develop a housing society.

Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Noor-ul-Amin Mengal has also highlighted this issue and stated that there is not much difference between ‘illegal’ and ‘unapproved’ housing societies so the people should take care while buying plot or property in any housing society.

He pointed out that the authorities in the past had been sleeping but now they are taking measures to discourage business of illegal housing societies.

Now the administration has decided to make this data public to aware people of illegal housing societies that can cause huge financial losses to them, he added.

An information centre will also be established from where the people can get the data before buying plots or houses in any housing society.

The data showed that Fateh Jhang has become the main hub of illegal housing societies and the people should take extreme care before making any deal in this area.

According to an official, the housing societies make people confused by differentiating between ‘illegal’ and ‘unapproved’ just to cheat them for financial gains.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government record showed that 69 per cent of the housing societies in Pakistan are not registered. Out of a total 8,767 housing societies, 6,000 are not registered with the concerned institutions. These housing societies have been made on bogus papers or their papers are incomplete.