Daily Times

LAHORE: Justice Shahid Waheed of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued notices to prime minister’s personal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad, Housing Ministry and Punjab chief secretary to inquire whether there is any housing policy for the poor and needy people of the province. The judge sought replies from the respondents within four weeks. Ali Jawad, a local resident, had filed the petition. Counsel for petitioner Sheraz Zaka submitted that there was no housing policy of the federal government to accommodate the poor. He said that there was no regulatory mechanism to keep checks and balances on the real estate sector. He submitted that realtors raked in huge amount of money without the development of schemes and did not issue allotment letters even after passage of ten years. He pointed out that in India there was a regulator to regulate the real estate sector to keep checks and balances on them. He said that the real estate sector was charging exorbitant amount in the form of development charges and the Housing Ministry had no regulatory mechanism. He requested the court to order authorities concerned to lay down some regulatory mechanism to regulate real estate sector.