Peshawar Diary: Incomplete Regi Model Town: no light at the end of the tunnel

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government has become the fourth provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that would leave 27-year old housing scheme of the province - Regi Model Town (RMT) incomplete.

The residential township, with a capacity of 27,000 residential plots, was launched in the 1990s and is stated to be the oldest and biggest residential housing scheme of the province.

Many plot owners of the scheme died with unfulfilled desires of having own house there to live in a serene environment.

The PTI government is set to complete its five-year tenure, but it didn't manage to complete remaining development works there which it promised.

The previous coalition government of Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the first few years made pledges to start development works in the housing scheme and enable plot owners to build houses.

In the previous KP government, Bashir Bilour (late) held the portfolio of minister of local government and rural development while Qazi Laiq, a junior officer stated to be a "blue-eyed" man of the ANP leadership, was made director general of the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) at that time.

The PDA is responsible for initiating development works and its supervision in the public sector housing schemes. Except a few cosmetic measures, the ANP-PPP government could neither allocate funds required for development works nor provided basic services to the housing scheme. It was apparently due to step-motherly treatment of the successive governments that the housing scheme became known as a dead project.

Then PTI came into power in 2013. It made a coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami and the Aftab Sherpao-led Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) in KP. The crucial ministry of local government and rural development went to JI's Inayatullah Khan.

Thousands of plot owners, a majority of them of senior citizens and retired servants, were anxiously waiting for the government to complete the remaining development works and ensure some basic facilities so they can build their houses there.

Many of them died but their desire of having a house in the Regi Model Town could not materialise. A noted columnist and retired university professor, Dr Zahoor Ahmad Awan, was one among those many unfortunate plot owners who died but his wish for having a house in the residential township could not be fulfilled.

One day, he got frustrated and wrote an article in a local newspaper, for which he used to write a column every day, and urged those having their residential plots in the township to purchase his plot if they wanted the housing scheme to be successful and start living there.

He stated that he was an unfortunate person and spent his life in the hope to build own house where he would spend life after his retirement in peace. He, however, mentioned that until and unless his plot existed in the housing scheme, it would remain a dead project and other plot holders would not succeed to build houses.

The PTI government had initially pledged to take practical measures for success of the RMT but opted for initiating other housing schemes in the province to solve residential problems. It allocated some funds and announced to provide all the required facilities to the housing scheme. The fund was too small to ensure even basic amenities of life.

Some of the people started building houses in the township and shifted there at their own risk. Presently, around 600 houses have been built and dozens are under-construction, but except electricity and drinking water, nothing is available to the residents.

Frustrated by the poor government response, the plot owners formed a pressure group "Save Regi Movement" with an aim to build pressure on the government and PDA to take interest in the housing project.

In 2016, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak called a meeting of PDA and representatives of the Save Regi Movement and directed the then director general of PDA Mohammad Salim Watoo to immediately provide facilities to the residents and start construction work on schools and hospitals in the township.

It is March 19, 2018 today but the government is yet to begin work on schools and health centres there. The residents were told three years ago that they would soon get natural gas facility in the township but the government is yet to fulfil its commitment.

"I hold the PTI government responsible for our problems as it has given this important ministry to Inayatullah Khan of JI. He belongs to Dir and is not an insane person to spend funds in Peshawar as ultimately he would need votes of his people in Dir," said Humayun Khan, one of the many irritated residents.

He alleged that Inayatullah and former PDA DG Salim Watoo were mainly responsible for the lack of basic facilities in the township. "We risked ours and our families' lives by shifting here but except water and electricity, there is not a single facility available to us," Humayun Khan complained.

He said they wanted the government to build schools and health centres so that the residents don't need sending their children to the distant educational institutions. "My wife had a kidney pain a few days ago. It was middle of the night and I left my two children alone in home and took her to the distant Hayatabad Medical Complex," he said.

He said a police station has been built but it lacked the required staff. Besides providing facilities to the residents, the government failed to resolve the longstanding issue of possession of Zone-2 and Zone-5 with the Kokikhel tribespeople in Khyber Agency.

Also, it could not find an amicable solution to construction of an approach road between Hayatabad and Regi Model Town with the military authorities. Interestingly, the KP government had announced to build a health city in RMT at the cost of Rs22 billion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but like many other announcements of the PTI government, this announcement also seemed to have proved just an announcement.