DHA Lahore Bahria Town Map Plots Houses Buy Sell Rent Property Prices

By Samia Saleem

KARACHI: In the absence of funding from the government, it has become extremely difficult for the middle-income group to buy a home from among the housing projects that were recently launched in the city.

The economic downturn in the country has left very few people with the capacity to invest for their housing needs.

It is sad to note despite recent increase in new building projects across the country not much attention is being paid towards housing for the less privileged people.

Around 12 to 15 housing projects are underway in Karachi and a few more are being constructed in other cities. Most of the recent projects are targeting the well-off class as is judged by the prices.

The only lender to the middle and low-income groups – HBFC – is in the reconstruction phase. The current industry scenario also worries the local builders and stakeholders. “It is the responsibility of the government to provide shelter and homes to public. By not providing enough funds for house building to deserving people, the government is also toppling the building industry as it was on the basis of these funds that the builders used to start new projects,” said Farooq-uz-Zaman Khan, the Chairman of Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD).

“It is possible to even think of a long term saving plan for housing,” said Jawed, a worker belonging to the lower-income group. “I feel sad that I won’t be able to give a home to my children,” he added.

The high mark rates of the private banks have put housing finance out of common man reach. “I took a loan from a private bank and the mark-up almost doubled during economic downturn, now every month with no raise in salaries I have to literally walk empty pocket after paying the loan instalments. And if I don’t comply it will sum up to a very big amount further indebting me or resulting in foreclosure,” said Adnan, a shop owner at a local market.

Whereas, Umair is among those people who regret not getting a loan to procure a home, “I have been living in a rented home for about six years. The Rs18,000 per month rent I am paying could have been the instalment for my home.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=205999

By Gibran Ashraf
The Awami National Party (ANP) is not involved in land grabbing or spreading Talbanisation in the province. Taliban are the creation of the establishment and if any such elements are discovered to have party links, such members would be immediately disowned by the party and handed over to local police for action.

This was stated by President ANP (Sindh) and Pakhtoon Loya Jirga (Pakhtoon Action Committee) Shahi Syed while speaking at ‘Meet the Press’ programme of Karachi Press Club on Friday evening.

Presenting his version of the allegations levelled against his party, Shahi Syed said, “There is no provision for democracy in Islam . . . many political parties demanding votes in the name of Islam have regularly failed to provide an Islamic system to the people . . . and the Taliban are an international conspiracy against Pakhtoons.”

As he accepted the fact that there was corruption all around, he was careful to point out the blackmailing carried out by journalists and the lack of faith showed by officials and politicians alike. He was agitated by the behaviour of religious scholars who had started indulging in politics without delivering on their promises.

He said that today Pakhtoons were being discriminated against by the Urdu speaking and the situation has worsened as all Pakhtoons were being labelled as terrorist. Dismissing the statements of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) about Talibanisation in Sindh, he said that the factors that determine the growth of Taliban or such elements were not witnessed in Karachi. These include lack of mountains and caves to serve as hideouts; the lack of a border which provide a supply line and escape route, and lastly that Karachi happens to be a heterogeneous city where the presence of Taliban (unlike in Waziristan and Swat) would be immediately spotted, he added.

Addressing the question of guns and target killing, he called upon the government to take steps to make Karachi a commercial hub where carrying weapons should be banned, whether licensed or unlicensed. He also urged the public to report to authorities about suspicious elements so that miscreants could be identified and taken to task. “The Jamat-e-Islami has also played its part in the spread of Kalashnikov culture in the country,” he alleged.

Regarding the pressing question of land grabbing, and the bone of contention between the Pakistan People’s Party, MQM and the ANP in this regard, Shahi Syed said that without police knowledge no one could grab even an inch of land. “This proves that land was being grabbed in connivance with the police. The police receive its share for every piece of land being grabbed,” he said. He however, pledged that any member of ANP, if found with proof to have grabbed land, he was willing to disown the member.

He further said that ANP was in a disadvantageous position in Sindh unlike other mainstream parties since ANP knows that they could never beat the PPP or the MQM to form majority government in Sindh and thus would never have the chance to exert its influence on the police as the other parties do in controlling transfers and other powers of the government.

He went on to say that his commitment to creating peace could be gauged from the fact that due to the increased politicising of the Pakhtoon Students Federation (PSF) and its illicit activities this student group was dismantled. He, however, maintained that educational institutions should be utilised for the dissemination of quality education rather than serving as the breeding ground for future party workers.

Answering questions of journalists, Shahi Syed said that there exists an element of distaste among the ANP members owing to the events in the previous administration during which various settlements (shanty towns) were razed to the ground and problems were created in getting national identity cards, while domiciles were not allowed to be issued from Sindh.

He said that the ANP did try and visit Nine-Zero to extend their hand of friendship, law and order situation was created which disrupted talks. “I am bound by my customs that when a member of my family is killed, I do not go to the murderer and talk of forgiveness, they should come to me,” Shahi Syed said.

In the end, he said that if he would have to, he would not hesitate in dissolving the party, however, every institution – from the police to politicians and people to the media – all need to be self critical and not indulge in double standards. He alleged that government vehicles were being used for transporting drugs and added that such elements should be taken to task like other smugglers.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=206045

PCO judges, bureaucrats benefited from policy made by Musharraf

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has rejected the government’s offer of allotment of a residential plot worth Rs30 million in Islamabad, it is learnt.

GM Sikandar, former housing and works secretary and presently member of the federal services tribunal, told The News on Friday that in line with the government’s policy the housing ministry had issued an offer letter to the chief justice of Pakistan for the allotment of a 600 sq yard residential plot in I-8 Sector of Islamabad on August 10 this year but the same day the government had to cancel the allotment after Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry refused to accept it.

The housing ministry that had taken the initiative apparently to please the chief justice was given a dressing down and had to undo everything within hours.Sikandar confirmed that the ministry had also sought the list of other Supreme Court judges, who were to be provided the second residential plot in Islamabad in line with the official policy.

By surrendering his right protected under the stated government policy, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry seems to have subtly rejected the plot politics of Pakistan, which enables a select few influential groups to get the lion’s share in state resources, leaving nothing for the poor and the needy.

Interestingly it was soon after the November 3, 2007 PCO of General Musharraf that the then ruling junta made the new policy whereby the judges of the Supreme Court were entitled to get two residential plots in Islamabad as was allowed to the federal secretaries and BS-22 officers of the federal government.

The immediate beneficiaries of the policy were all the five judges of the Supreme Court, who had taken oath under the PCO including Justice (retd) Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice (retd) Nawaz Abbasi, Justice (retd) Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice (retd) Javed Buttar and Justice (retd) Saeed Ashad. All these PCO judges were given additional residential plots within a few weeks of the November 3 episode.

Sources in the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) said that these PCO judges were even taken to D-12 sector to select the plots of their choice for their services to the dictator of the day.

A few weeks before November 3, 2007 the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo moto notice of the government’s decision to allot two residential plots to federal secretaries in Islamabad. While issuing notices to all concerned, Justice Iftikhar had questioned how the government could distribute the state land to a select group like sweets. But before he could decide the case, Musharraf imposed his unconstitutional PCO following which the PCO judges took no time to dismiss the suo moto notice. Consequently, they too got the additional plots.

It could be anybody’s guess as to what was the motive behind the present government’s initiative to offer on its own a residential plot to Justice Iftikhar in the posh sector whereas all others were given plots in D-12 where the value of a plot is around Rs7 million.

Justice Iftikhar’s response even surprised the mandarins of the housing ministry and the FGEHF. The housing ministry documents show that on August 10, 2009, the ministry approached Registrar Supreme Court Dr Faqir Hussain with a provisional offer letter for the allotment of plot in I-8 sector to Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. But within no time, the housing ministry got a response from the Registrar’s office, directing it to immediately withdraw the offer letter as the chief justice was not interested in the plot no matter what the government policy said.

The housing ministry immediately, the same day, got back to the Registrar informing him that the offer letter had been withdrawn as per direction of the Supreme Court. The ministry also submitted, “It is humbly clarified that the offer was made in pursuance of the package approved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan for BS-22 officers and the honourable Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to remove the discrimination. Any embarrassment caused in this respect is deeply regretted.”

It might be a coincidence but the housing ministry issued the offer letter to the chief justice at a time when the Supreme Court is already seized with the suo moto case involving highly controversial allotments made by the present government through the FGEHF to a select class of bureaucrats, journalists and others.

The Supreme Court, which had referred the case to the government for an inquiry into these controversial allotments, has already been informed that most of these allotments, including those to government officials and journalists, were made in violation of the policy and in a non-transparent manner.

A senior housing ministry source said that the inquiry report also showed how a superior judiciary’s dismissal order of a writ petition seeking allotment of plots was used as a justification to make allotment of residential plots.

It should be mentioned here that in line with the government’s policy three of the Supreme Court judges who had re-joined the Supreme Court by accepting the Naek formula of re-appointment were also allotted plots in the D-12 sector last year.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=25292

KARACHI: The construction industry recorded a decline of 10.8 percent in FY09—the largest fall in 37 years, said the State Bank of Pakistan’s annual report for 2008-09 released on Thursday. Construction industry constitutes around 2.4 percent of GDP. The drag by construction sector to the growth of GDP and industry in FY09 was significant at (-) 0.3 and (-) 1.0 percentage points respectively. Construction industry in FY09 had to put up with sharp increase in building material prices during the first eight months of the current year, significant cut in disbursement of PSDP funds and dearth of financing facilities which caused the construction activities to shrink significantly. Not surprisingly, almost all other indicators of construction growth also paint a gloomy picture. The weakening construction activity is a source of disquiet especially from the perspective of employment generation among unskilled labor force and ultimately for poverty alleviation. Almost 3.3 million people were employed in construction sector in FY08 and the number for rural areas (2.2 million) is twice that of urban areas (1.1 million). Moreover, construction sector is also strongly associated with the growth in a number of manufacturing industries including cement, metals, glass, paints, etc. However, there are some hopes of a recovery in construction activities in FY10 keeping in view the decline in building material prices. The expectation of this recovery is further supported by higher PSDP allocations in the FY10 budget, expected initiation of power projects and reconstruction activity in Swat, as well as the impact of the recent easing of monetary policy. A performance indicator of the construction industry was domestic cement dispatches, which fell from 22.4 million tonnes in FY08 to 19.4 million tonnes in FY09. Iron and steel production declined from 8.238 million tonnes in FY08 to 5.975 million tonnes in FY09. Import of iron and steel dropped from 2.22 million tonnes to 2.04 million tonnes. Foreign direct investment in this sector took a deep plunge, going down from $193.2 million to $130.4 million. mushfiq ahmad

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp…2009_pg5_5

The balloting ceremony for allotment of plots in the DHA City, which was scheduled to be held on Thursday at DHA Golf Club, was postponed after the detection of an inevitable bug in the database at the eleventh hour. Now the balloting for DHA City plots would be held on November 5 at 11am at the Defence Authority Country & Golf Club, DHA Phase-VIII. “Due to an accidental technical bug, the computerized software system collapsed and despite all efforts, could not be restored in time. This prompted the management of the DHA to postpone the event,” he said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=205835

Affectees want allotment of shops at original floors

Friday, October 30, 2009
Saeed Ahmed

Rawalpindi

After rumours that the owner of Gakhar Plaza plans to allot the new plaza shops to erstwhile shopkeepers at the sixth floor upwards, a wave of unrest and anger has swept the affected traders of ill-fated Gakhar Plaza, which was totally gutted on December 20 last year.

They were highly infuriated with the rumours that the owner plans to deprive the shopkeepers of their original place and intends to give shops to them at the sixth floor and upwards, thus keeping all the first five floors to himself to rent them out to new persons. They said that if they were not adjusted at their original places, i.e at the floors where they had their shops, they would not allow that to happen and would go to any extent to stop the cupidity of the owner.

Talking to ‘The News’ members of Gakhar Plaza Traders Action Committee Nadir Khan and Sheikh Rafiq said that soon after the collapse of Gakhar Plaza, the owner had promised around 525 traders that equal number of shops would be allotted to them first, but now when the plan for the new building has been approved Raja Shahid Zafar is deviating from his commitment.

They said that with their hard labour they made the Gakhar Plaza as the hallmark of the city and the most prestigious name that people trusted. If these traders are forced to accept kiosks at the sixth or even upper floors, nothing could be more cruel and unjust.

They angry traders action committee demanded that they should be allotted shops at their original floors before the construction starts. If any attempt is made to cheat the traders they would launch a forceful movement against the owner of the plaza, and take all possible measures to thwart such rank injustice. They even threatened to bring out a ‘Kafan Posh’ rally at the site of Gakhar Plaza for which a date would be announced shortly.

Talking to ‘The News’ Raja Shahid Zafar the owner of the plaza said that Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has approved the building plan of the new building of Gakhar Plaza and construction work would commence by the end of December. He added that the work of allotment of shops has already begun.

Giving details he said that the new plaza would be a multi-storey building with a basement as parking lot. The allotment of shops to the interested persons has been initiated from 6th-storey. “The affected traders would also be given their due share as per promise,” he added.

He however refuted the claims of Gakhar Plaza affectees and said that the process of allotment of shops has already begun. However, he did not comment whether the shops to the affectees would be allotted at their original floors and whether it would be done before the completion of the new building or not. He said that it depends upon the nature of work and structure of building. He said, “The affected traders would also be given their due share as per promise.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=205882

Islamabad

The Public Accounts Committee’s grilling has cost a director general of the Capital Development Authority a delay in promotion to the next grade.

Well placed sources told ‘The News’ that the Cabinet Division has approved the promotions of three DGs of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to the next grade while one DG has been left out because of a pending enquiry against him over construction of a toll plaza in Islamabad and the PAC had taken notice of the case and grilled the CDA officials in its last meeting.

Details reveal that DG Works Abdul Jabbar Malanu, DG Structure and Design Saadullah Bangish and Director CDA hospital Dr Saddique Akber Satti have been promoted to the next scale while DG Water Management Sanaullah Aman has not been promoted because he was facing an inquiry. Sources said that the promotion cases of Major Hassan M Malik and Rawal Khan Maitala of grade 19 have been deferred for incomplete ACRs while Dr Naveed Ashfaq and Dr Shabnam Raja could not get the promotion because of show cause notices.

Sources said that the meeting of departmental promotion committee was held in the Cabinet Division here on Thursday and was attended by chairman CDA and others. Late Thursday evening, the CDA officials confirmed these promotions.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=205869