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Govt urged to restart 'mera ghar' scheme

Recorder Report

LAHORE: All Pakistan Contractors Association (APCA) has urged the government to either restart the 42 housing projects of 'Mera Ghar Scheme' launched during the Nawaz regime or terminate the contracts by paying the liabilities of the contractors and charges of the consultants/ designers.

It said that stoppage of work on these projects had not only blocked around Rs 1 billion of the contractors and construction companies but also rendered around two million workforce jobless.

Addressing a news conference here on Monday, APCA Acting Chairman Akbar Sheikh, along with a number of association members and representatives of consultants and related industries, said that eight percent of the total workforce of the country was employed by the construction industry. "This industry also supports more than 40 allied industries of building and construction material through consumer demand." He termed this state of affairs as unfortunate and said that at present, the industry was not working even to 30 percent of its total capacity.

The APCA Chief said that 'Mera Ghar' Housing scheme was started by the previous government to overcome the economic recession and unprecedented un-employment which later was renamed as Pakistan Housing Scheme. He said the scheme was a `labour-oriented' project and was described commercially viable by the consultants. "It could also serve as a tool to overcome the shortage of housing units in Pakistan as the present demand was about 600,000 units per annum, while the country was short of seven million units.

He said 42 projects were awarded to the contractors for construction of 9,000 units and contractors had so far invested around Rs 1 billion and added that only a few contractors had been paid around Rs 50 million to Rs 60 million while majority of them invested from their working capital.

Akbar Sheikh said that after the change of government, though the Chief Executive had announced to continue with the scheme, there was no headway in this regard.

He claimed that Pakistan Housing Authority had written to the government that if seed money of Rs. 1.5 billion is provided to the Ministry of Housing to restart these projects and the liabilities of contractors, consultants/designers are cleared, it would not demand more money and the projects would be completed.

Akber Shaikh said that the remaining amount would be generated by marketing the sale of the housing units and the seed money would also be returned to government after sale of units in due course of time.

Zafar Ullah Khan of the association, Pervaiz Qureshi, a consultant and President All Pakistan Kiln Owners Association, Shaoib Niazi, speaking on this occasion said that discontinuation of the project might render a large number of people jobless.

They also urged the government to clear the dues of the contractors at the earliest if it was not interested in continuation of this project because contractors were not in a position to pay back to their creditors.