Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) has attained approval from the Ministry of Housing and Works to start development work in Bara Kahu Housing Scheme Phase-II.

The approval was made during a meeting of the executive committee which works under the chairmanship of Secretary Ministry of Housing and Works, an official of the ministry said. He said the committee directed the launch of the project only on the land owned by the joint venture firm for Bara Kahu Housing Scheme Phase- II. The firm owns 67,000 kanals land for the scheme, he added.

The official said that development work on the project was put on halt on orders of Supreme Court, which has lately announced that shamlaat land will not be used for the project.

The foundation has completely failed to inaugurate any housing society for the federal government employees during the last five years. The FGEHF was currently working on the projects including Housing Scheme Phase-VI, (Bara Kahu), Housing Scheme Phase-VI, (F-14/F-15), Housing Scheme Phase-VIII (Thallian), Housing Scheme Phase-IX (EHFPRO) and Housing Scheme Phase-X (Park Road) but these projects have not yet been completed despite the process being initiated many years ago.

The mandate of the FGEHF is to provide shelter to the homeless federal government employees and other specified groups on no profit no loss basis. The first project was to develop Sector F-14 and F-15 for which the allotments were made by the foundation and the award for development of the project was also given to the FWO. Most of the land was transferred from the locals to the foundation. However, due to the interference of Islamabad High Court, the allotment in Sector F-14 was cancelled and the foundation went into intra-court appeal where the hearings are still under way.

Another project of the foundation was in Housing Scheme Phase-VIII (Thallian), a joint venture with the private sector. Again the Public Accounts Committee took notice and halted the project. That project had main access from motorway but due to failure to pay for land acquisition, the project is at standstill. Housing Scheme Phase VI in Bara Kahu has suffered from the chronic issue of right of way to the society since 2009. Angoori road, the only road to connect society with the main road, is only 12 feet wide and is insufficient to cater to the traffic flow. Now the foundation has acquired more land from the locals.

Another project is of Green Enclave II, Tehsil Murree, where the foundation has bought land for Rs 400,000 per kanal. When contacted, an FGEHF official said the foundation had launched new projects and residential schemes in Bara Kahu, Sector F-14 and apartments in G-13. The progress is slow but it is mainly due to inquiries, land acquisition, notices of Public Accounts Committee and cases pending in courts, he added. The official said the foundation is primarily focusing on government employees as they give their lives to the government and many of them are denied their own home due to limited resources.

Giving details of the housing projects, he said that the foundation started membership drive for the registration of federal government employees in 2009 when the members were registered on the basis of first come first served and it ended in February 2014, wherein almost 36,000 employees got registered with the foundation. In addition, around 100,000 federal employees got registered themselves in membership drive-II which started on the basis of age-wise seniority in April 2015 and closed in July 2017.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.