| ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Housing and Works on Thursday decided to stop operation against the illegal constructions in government houses by their allottees.
Last week, the ministry of housing had chalked out “mega operation” against the illegal constructions in government houses in collaboration with police and ICT administration and CDA. The operation was started on Wednesday from sector F-6, but it was stopped on Thursday.
“Federal Minister for Housing and Works Maulana Abdul Wasay held a meeting with the representatives of allottees of government houses of Islamabad and directed to immediately cease the ongoing anti-encroachment operation against the illegally constructed structures in the houses due to current economic circumstances of the country,” read a statement issued by the ministry.
It said that former federal minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary and Federal Secretary Housing Iftikhar Ali Shallwani also attended the meeting, in which minister directed to stop the operation.
The press release said that while talking to the representatives Maulana Abdul Wasay said that he was fully aware of the problems and inconvenience people face because of the encroachments and vowed to do everything in his ambit to resolve it.
However, the situation is not suitable for an anti-encroachment drive as it will further suppress the already crushed public, the minister said and added although extra construction inside the courtyard/rooftops are disturbing the original map of the building and also compromising the beauty of the planned city, causing inconvenience to the public, still anti-encroachment operation in these circumstances is not recommended and it will make huge loss to the residents.
He further said that in order to provide modern residential facilities to the federal government employees a new strategy of high rise buildings is under consideration and summary has already been sent to the Prime Minister’s office.
He also applauded the efforts of Federal Secretary Housing and Works Iftikhar Ali Shallwani for taking up such serious notice of the encroachment issues in government houses.
Former federal minister and PML-N leader from Islamabad Tariq Fazal Chaudhary and representatives of the residents of government accommodations, according to press release, applauded and thanked Maulana Abdul Wasay and federal secretary for putting an end to the anti-encroachment operation as it is a timely step which had to be taken to give public some relief.
In Islamabad, the ministry of housing has thousands of government owned houses, which had been allotted to government servants.
However, a large number of them have modified the houses with illegal expansion. The single storey houses in various sectors including F-6, G-6 and G-7 have been illegally extended with additional storey.
Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2023 |
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