Only 17,000 housing units delivered under Naya Pakistan initiative

ISLAMABAD: Only 17,000 housing units have so far been delivered across the country under the Naya Pakistan housing initiative of the previous government.

The number of housing units delivered so far is not even one percent of what was promised by the former government -- five million housing units. Interestingly, the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority has not yet delivered a single housing unit by itself.

However, a reputed NGO Akhuwat Foundation has so far delivered 17,000 housing units to the needy ones till now. “The projects in Lahore, Sarghoda and Islamabad are being efficiently followed. Balloting for housing units in Farash town in Islamabad is also done and the list is being given to the local government department for handing over of the apartments,” said spokesperson NAPHDA.

The 3000 apartments, made with the collaboration of Workers Welfare Fund (WWF), are also ready but a case related to the project is ongoing in the court and once it is closed, they will also be handed over to the deserving ones, said the NAPHDA spokesperson.

Approximately, around 59,000 housing units are under construction in different parts of the country, out of which almost 20,000 housing units have been completed so far, data shared by the spokesperson of NAPHDA revealed.

Out of these 20,000, over 17,000 housing units are constructed by Akhuwat and around 3,000 by Workers Welfare Fund, while none are delivered by the NAPHDA and local government departments till now.

The News did a report on the performance of NAPHDA in November last year, which stated, “Akhuwat Foundation takes full responsibility in making those housing units and claims that NAPHDA has nothing to do with them.”

However, the information shared with this correspondent by the NAPHDA also included Akhuwat Foundation’s low-cost houses, which stood over 17,000 units across Pakistan.

The NAPHDA spokesperson, agreed to this and said that they had no involvement in the housing units constructed by Akhuwat and also revealed that a total of Rs8 billion were given to Akhuwat by the NAPHDA.

Briefing about the projects being done with the help of local government departments in different cities, the NAPHDA spokesperson said that the construction work is progressive in all the areas and the contractors and builders take time which is usual and the apartments are expected to be delivered to its clients by the start of next year, 2023.

In Zone-V of Islamabad, 1,508 units have been constructed and in Regi Lalma Housing scheme, 2,056 units , the NAPHDA spokesperson said, maintaining that the units have not yet being delivered to the poor, because a case was ongoing related to it in the court.

It was further told that different local authorities are presently constructing over 30,000 housing units, which are expected to be delivered early next year such as in Sarghoda, Lahore and Islamabad. Further, around 4,500 low-cost housing units are being constructed on the peri-urban areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A little less than 7,000 low-cost housing units are being constructed on private lands, to which eligibility letters have been issued from their respective banks. In addition, the details of cost of the housing units, which are under construction, were also shared with this scribe by the NAPHDA.

The cost of these 59,000 housing units, which are under construction, is almost around Rs140 billiona. The 17,000 housing units, made by Akhuwat Foundation, cost around Rs8 billion. The construction on private lands carried out by the NAPHDA (6933 HUs) across Pakistan cost around Rs17.5 billion. The housing units on peri-urban areas, which are around 5,000, cost around Rs8 billion, whereas, the rest made by CDA and LDA, cost around Rs105 billion.