The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved the constitution of Naya Pakistan Housing Authority under which 135,000 housing units would be built across the country.
Briefing journalists about the decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would inaugurate the project in Islamabad on April 17.
He said that 25,000 housing units would be constructed in Islamabad, while 110,000 housing units would be established in Balochistan. He added that a special town would be built for Gwadar fishermen under the scheme.
Chaudhry said the cabinet also accorded approval to construction of ‘Media University’ in Pakistan. He added that the objective behind the establishment of the state-of-the-art university was to give modern technological training to the future media professionals.
The minister said that the media university would be set up by merging existing academies of the state-run television, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and Information Service. He said that media technology, digital media, cinematography and other modern media techniques would be taught at the university.
He said he might visit China soon to seek professional cooperation for the Media University, which is a flagship project of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He said he had discussed the project with Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and would also take the United States firms on board.
The government, he said, was planning to build the university on the public-private partnership model and no funds from public sector would be spent on it.
On economic front, he said that Finance Minister Asad Umar had reached the United States to hold talks with International Monetary Fund in connection with bailout package.
He added that the minister would also discuss the asset declaration scheme with IMF officials.
The prime minister also directed a crackdown on big fish involved in theft of electricity and gas, he told journalists. He said pilferage of electricity worth Rs 40 billion had been prevented due to effective measures taken by the incumbent government. He said that cases had been registered against those involved in gas and electricity theft. He said gas worth Rs 3 billion had been stolen in the last three years.
He said the PML-N leader Sheikh Rohail Asghar’s gas bill had gone up from mere Rs 1,200 rupees per month to over Rs10 million, which shows massive theft of the commodity.
Moreover, he said that a train station was being established at Nankana Sahib after the name of Baba Guru Nanak.