ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday launched the second phase of registration for the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme to provide affordable housing facility to the low-income segments of the country.
The objective of countrywide registration process by the Pakistan Housing and Development Authority is to collect data of the public demand for the housing across the country and launch projects in accordance with the needs.
The ceremony was attended by Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar, special assistants Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Naeemul Haq, Naya Pakistan Housing Authority Chairman General (retd) Anwar Ali Hyder, Secretary Housing Dr Imran and senior government officials.
The prime minister also launched a web portal (www.nphp.nadra.gov.pk) by pushing the button from where the applicants would be able to register themselves while being at home without having to visit any office.
Addressing the launching ceremony, the prime minister said the federal cabinet would approve necessary legislation on Tuesday to enable the commercial banks extend loan facility to the poor people, who could not afford to buy a house.
He said the registration process would enable the relevant authorities to ascertain about the public demand and launch housing projects in the areas where those were required.
The prime minister asked the people to register themselves in the process so that the government could know the housing demand and that how much an applicant could pay to ascertain the volume of the funding.
He also expressed the confidence that such incentives-laden schemes would be launched across the country, including Quetta, Gwadar, Lahore, Islamabad etc to overcome the housing shortage being faced by the people.
The prime minister said the housing authority would introduce one window operations to facilitate the applicants.
He said the housing project would help uplift 40 other allied industries, besides providing ample opportunities to those who wanted to invest in those schemes.
He said the government desired the students and young entrepreneurs to form their own firms for taking part in the housing project which would beget jobs.
He said the construction of five million houses was not an easy task but the government had taken up the challenge to overcome the deficit.
Pakistan, he said, had been lagging behind in the housing sector owing to the absence of mortgage facility for the low-income class. The house mortgage ratio in India stood at 10 percent and in the Western world 80 to 90 percent, but in Pakistan it was far below at just 0.2 percent.
The prime minister said currently, the persons having enough cash, could buy a house and they were in very small percentage.
He said the housing shortage had swelled to 10 million in the country and for low-earners and salaried persons, it was very difficult to buy a house on cash.
He said it was pleasing that the people were taking huge interest in the housing project.
Imran Khan said the government had also collected data on its land bank that would be offered to the investors for construction of the housing units.
Acting Chairman of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Zulfiqar Ali said under the first phase of registration, which was started in October 2018, around 500,000 people had been registered.
He said keeping in view the increasing interest of the people, NADRA had designed a web portal to ease the registration process that would mainly facilitate the overseas Pakistanis.
He said besides the portal, the registration facility would also be available at 7,500 NADRA E-Sahulat facilities across the country to help those who would be unable to use the portal.
He said the web portal would help collect the data on demand of the housing according to their locations and the applicants would also be selected through the very database.