Daily Times

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s promise to provide five million houses to low income strata of society is turning into reality. He said this while addressing the launching ceremony of the Prime Minister’s Affordable Housing Project at Raiwind on Thursday. He said the first phase of 35,000 apartments in Lahore had been started whereas the foundation stone of the LDA City Housing project had been laid for constructing 4,000 apartments.

Usman Buzdar said that under the Prime Minister’s Affordable Housing Project 133 places had been identified in various cities across the province. He said that in the first phase, 10,120 houses would be constructed at 32 places in 26 tehsils of the province. Prime Minister’s Affordable housing project had been launched in Raiwind, Chunian, Mandi Bahauddin, Mianwali, DG Khan, Khushab, Chiniot, Sargodha, Khanewal and Multan, he added.

The CM said that work was being carried out to expand the horizon of this project in various tehsils, adding that area of a house had been increased from 3 marlas to 3.5 marlas and total support price of each marla had been fixed as Rs 30,000 to 35,000 whereas market value was in millions. Usman Buzdar said under the Prime Minister’s Affordable Housing Project the overall cost of each house was almost Rs 1,430,000, adding that the applicant would deposit Rs 143,000 whereas the remaining amount of Rs 1,000,000 for construction would be provided by the Bank of Punjab. He said that the monthly installment had been fixed as almost Rs 10,000.

The government/Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) would provide a subsidy of Rs 300,000 against every house,, he added. The CM said that construction work had been handed over to the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) for ensuring transparency. He said that the provincial cabinet had given approval of Rs 3 billion for developing infrastructure at 32 places of this project. Work to provide affordable residential facilities to people was being carried out under the banner of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, he added.

GRANT TO LAWYERS BODIES

Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar handed over grant-in-aid cheques valuing Rs 3.2 crore to different bar associations at a ceremony held at his office. Law Minister Raja Basharat, law secretary and AG Punjab were also present.

He gave a grant-in-aid cheque of Rs 5 million to vice president Lahore High Court Bar Association Rana Mudassir Maghiana, a cheque worth Rs40 lac to president Lahore District Bar Association Malik Sarood Ahmed and a cheque valuing Rs30 lac to president District Bar Association Sialkot Khalid Hussain Qureshi.

The CM also handed over one million cheques each to president Tehsil Bar Association Daska Shahzad Sadiq Cheema, president TBA Pasroor Rana Irfan Ali and president TBA Sambrial Muhammad Imran Cheema. Similarly, a 30 lac rupees cheque was given to the president DBA TT Singh Haji Akhtar Rasool. He gave away one million cheques each to president TBA Gojra Ijaz Ahmed, president TBA Kamalia Rai Adil Kamran and president TBA Pir Mahal Jamil Ahmed Vance.

DBA Bahawalpur president Muhammad Akhtar Abbasi was given a four million rupees cheque and secretary DBA Multan Osama Bahadur Khan received a five million rupees cheque from the CM. Meanwhile, president TBA Jalalpur Pirwala Abdullah Razzaq and president TBA Shujaabad Rana Muhammad Yousaf Noon were given one million rupees cheque each.

Talking on this occasion, the CM announced to take more steps for the welfare of the legal fraternity. Lawyers’ problems will be resolved on a priority basis, he added and regretted that the past governments ignored the difficulties of the legal fraternity. They only protected personal interests, he deplored.

The PTI government is bringing ease to the lives of the common man and is fully committed to arranging more facilities. A state-of-the-art facility will be built in Lahore for the lawyers of far-flung areas and action will be initiated soon on lawyers’ tower by identifying a suitable piece of land, he said. Planning is being made concerning residential facilities for the legal fraternity and they will also be given health cards, concluded the CM.

TOURIST SPOTS

On the instructions of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar, it has been decided to close down all the tourist spots, including mountain resort town Murree, during Eid holidays from May 8 to May 16.

In a statement, the CM maintained the decision has been taken in the wake of the prevailing corona situation and urged the citizens to remain confined to their homes during holidays. The roads leading to Murree and other tourist spots will remain closed till May 16 and no trespassing will be allowed, he affirmed and appealed to the citizens to follow the instructions while showing socially responsible behaviour.