Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said that his Government has identified housing as a priority area and is therefore planning to provide five hundred thousand units during the next five years to overcome the housing shortfall.
The Prime Minister said this while meeting a delegation of the Turkish Housing Authority led by Minister for Environment and Urbanization Erdogan Bayraktar in Islamabad on Wednesday.He said that his government’s “Mera Ghar” scheme introduced in 1997 was a move to provide this basic necessity to lower and lower middle class families.The Prime Minister expressed the confidence to take the bilateral relations with Turkey to new heights and work for promoting and strengthening the economic and trade relations. He said that his government would benefit from Turkey’s Mass Housing Program wherein low cost housing facility for the poor families could be provided.
The Prime Minister was briefed by the Turkish delegation that Turkey has devised a revenue sharing model according to which 15 % of their housing stock is diverted towards “Revenue Generation” and the remaining 85% towards “Social Housing”.The Prime Minister said that he will study the financial model and visit on ground the housing schemes developed in rural and urban areas in Turkey during his forthcoming visit.
The Prime Minister thanked the Turkish Delegation and said that he is looking forward to the upcoming visit to Turkey where Pak-Turkey bilateral relations would further strengthen.Finance Minister Ishaq Dar‚ Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif‚ Minister of State for Housing Barrister Usman Ibrahim and Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi also attended the meeting.It may be recalled that Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will pay a three-day visit to Turkey from the 16th of this month.The visit will help strengthen economic relations between Pakistan and Turkey. – TheNation
