There were 6 housing schemes, announced by various successive governments of Pakistan, but none of them could give any results, and is still standing on its earlier position, so far as housing is concerned.
- Housing scheme of Pakistan People’s Party and PM Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1972-1977)
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto came on the political scene as a result of the country’s 1st general elections in 1970, with some good political narrative for the poor and downtrodden people with a political slogan of Food, Clothing and Shelter (Roti, Kapra aur Makan) addressing their basic needs. His election manifesto envisaged three main promises to the people, and those were also food (roti). clothes (kapra) and shelter (makan). Obviously, the main agenda of his election promise was to provide affordable housing to the people. Apart from some political sloganeering and some administrative announcements through country’s only state-owned housing finance setup named the House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) nothing significant was done during that period. History is silent about any concrete planning or the implementation of Bhutto’s mass housing scheme in the country under his government.
Some critics claimed that the slogan was too simplistic and unrealistic. They pointed out that achieving food, clothing, and shelter for all was a complex task that required more than just political slogans. And above all, no on-the-ground infrastructures were built during the tenancy of the government, or afterwards to systematically work on these popular slogans.
- Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo’s housing program “Apni Basti” (1987-1988)
Muhammad Khan Junejo launched the ‘Apni Basti’ (My Habitat) project in 1987 which aimed to build 150,000 housing units, but eventually only 35,000 houses were constructed. The scheme had too many flaws, primarily the locations; housing schemes were to be built on “raw land” with no business model to transform that land into “serviced land”. The locations had little or no external infrastructure including transport. In addition, these locations were lacking provision for water, power and gas. Eventually, the people who were allocated those houses did not live there and moved back to the habitat where they were living before.
“Apni Basti” program also had a limited level of rural housing scheme in Sindh province, which was titled as “Goth-abad” roughly meaning “village building”. This scheme turned out to be a failure because of lack of any proper planning, absence of any checks and balances, and lack of accountability of how and to whom money for constructing or buying a small house could be given. Only a few people could be personally benefited by government’s money.
- Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ‘Mera Ghar’ Scheme (1996-1999)
The “Mera Ghar” (my house) scheme was a housing initiative launched by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his second term in office, starting in 1996. It aimed to address the housing needs of low-income groups in Pakistan by building 500,000 housing units in a year, across the country.
Outcomes of these initiatives were minimal to nothing. These also faced criticisms for the projects’ unrealistic pricing and unsuitable locations for some units.
The “Mera Ghar” scheme is not officially active anymore. However, it served as a blueprint for subsequent housing initiatives in Pakistan, such as the “Apna Ghar” scheme during Nawaz Sharif’s next and third tenure.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced a major housing scheme, the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme (PMHS), in 2008, with an ambitious goal of constructing 1 million houses annually for low and middle-income families in Pakistan. The initiative created a sort of political interest in some sections of the society, but it failed to attract thinking minds to the plan, because of some inherent but obvious flaws. The first and foremost was the lack of much needed financial planning for providing funding support to the program. The second important question was, how people, particularly the buyers/beneficiaries would fit into the financing scheme for ensuring their eligibility. So, the implementation of the scheme faced significant challenges, leading to almost stalling the implementation of the plan, and it is facing ongoing debates about its effectiveness in its life time.
Apart from the above, the scheme faced challenges on issues regarding land acquisition, transformation of raw land into serviced land, lack of transparency, and limited or no progress on the ground even during the currency of the plan.
- Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s “Apna Ghar Housing Society” scheme (started in 2013 but never properly initiated)
The Apna Ghar housing society scheme was announced by Nawaz Sharif in 2013, but unfortunately was never truly commenced. While it wasn’t formally “ended” on a specific date, it became increasingly sidelined and ultimately remained unimplemented throughout Nawaz Sharif’s tenure.
The program was designed to be a public-private partnership, with the government providing land and subsidies and the private sector providing construction and financing. The government allocated 20,000 acres of land for the program, and provided a subsidy of Rs. 500,000 per unit. The private sector was responsible for constructing the units and providing financing to the beneficiaries.
The program faced a number of challenges, like Land acquisition issues: the government was unable to acquire the required lands it needed for the program, and this led to delays in the construction of some units. The other challenges were, financial challenges, as the private sector was reluctant to invest in the program.
As a result of these challenges, the program failed to achieve its target of 500,000 units. By the time the program was terminated in 2023, only around 100,000 units had been constructed.
Despite these criticisms, the Apna Ghar program did have some positive outcomes. The program helped to raise awareness of the housing affordability crisis in Pakistan, and it led to the development of some new housing models that are more affordable for low-income families.
Imran Khan came into power in 2018, and before coming to power he and his party “Tehreek-e-Insaf”, had been working on various socio-economic policies, the most important of which was housing policy. This policy was designed and developed with the help of experts in the field of housing finance and affordable housing. Before coming to power, his party announced a detailed “Housing Policy and Program” which was prepared by experts in the field of housing, more so with specialization in affordable housing. So, Imran Khan’s policy was not a run-of-the-mill programme like the other policies and programmes earlier announced by other political parties.
Presently, Pakistan’s housing shortage is considered to be more than 12 million. So, the government of Imran Khan set the tough target to meet the housing backlog by adding one million housing units per year, i.e., 5 million (50 lakhs) in five years. A tough target indeed, but a tough situation needed tougher handling; so, the then Prime Minister had given a very hard, and seemingly unachievable, target to his team and his lieutenants to plan for the drastic situation and achieve the seemingly huge target. To achieve the tough target, the PM had set up a federal PM Housing Task Force, and similar platforms below federal level in the form of four provincial housing task forces to achieve the target.
In Pakistan, it was the first time that the policy makers in the capital were proactively thinking and planning for housing in rural areas of Pakistan too, the population of which is almost 65%, or 2/3 of Pakistan, which was 45% for rural areas and 20% in peri-urban areas. Ironically the need for rural areas and peri-urban areas have always remained neglected in Pakistan’s planning and housing policy formulations.
As far as income segments were concerned, the housing program of the government, titled Naya Pakistan Housing Program was focused on lower-middle, low-income housing as well as the housing issues of those household defined as the Bottom-of-Pyramid section. Improvements of slums and Katchi-Abadis in peri-urban areas also had special attention in this Program. Rapid urban migration and urban congestion had led to the emergence of un-planned peri-urban development and the emergence of slums.
The Government had set up a housing authority at the federal level called “Naya Pakistan Housing & Development Authority- NAPHDA”. NAPHDA was to execute the housing program as envisaged in the Naya Pakistan Housing Policy of the Government.
With the untimely departure of Tehrik-e-Insaf government in the mid of 2022, this program was also ended, without making any viewable foot print in housing sector of Pakistan. After this, the program went into cold storage, as is being done with other schemes in Pakistan with the change of governments.Keywords: housing, affordable housing housing schemes in Pakistan, roti kapra aur makan, apni basti scheme, mera ghar scheme, apna ghar scheme, naya Pakistan housing,