The prime minister has announced a housing delivery programme titled as ‘Apna Ghar’ a few weeks ago. The total target is kept at 500,000 units. A physical planning guideline is also provided where procurement of land and delivery of finished housing through the engagement of builders and developers is being processed. There are teams of experts that are deliberating to finalise the details of this programme.

Given the fact that estimates of urban housing demand is at least six times the stated number of the programme, this may appear to be another supply driven token initiative. However, it will be useful to analyse the potential of a housing initiative of this kind and suggest how it could be modified for better impacts on the sector.

The dilemma with the various housing projects and programmes has been that they focused on cumulative supply of land or housing without linking it within the actual needy groups. In Karachi alone, several schemes launched in the name of urban poor were drastically affected by this shortcoming. The Shah Latif Town, a very large land supply scheme launched by the defunct KDA, floated over 43000 plots of land.

As the mechanism of launch was kept open for all, the land for housing was quickly accessed and booked by small scale middle class investors or large scale hoarders of land for future speculation. As the scheme was relatively distant from the developed part of the city, it could not gain momentum for construction by the allottees. Since 1979, more than three decades have passed and the scheme even today bears a deserted look. The other sub-urban territories of Taiser and Hawkes Bay Town are no different in status and appearance.

The public sector agencies also floated built unit schemes in the form of apartments or single unit homes of limited scale. However, very little success could be achieved.

In Pakistan, shelter has become a grave problem for a vast majority of population. The low income groups in urban and rural contexts face the burgeoning challenge. The number and typology of vulnerable groups is escalating at an exponential rate. People are displaced due to ingress of militant groups and consequent state strikes.

The access to housing is denied on count of religious beliefs, ethnic origins, social orientations and even cultural preferences. Cyclic displacements of population from disaster prone and economically degenerating regions to relatively prosperous contexts have become rampant.

Karachi in Sindh; Quetta in Balochistan; Faisalabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi in Punjab and Peshawar in KPK are all facing the brunt of this haywire phenomenon. With census indefinitely delayed, proper quantification has become utmost difficult.

Land has now become a commodity which is transacted on the basis of political expediency and commercial gains. It is no longer treated as a social asset for the benefit of masses. Decisions for land disposal are taken in an arbitrary manner. Laws for disposal of urban lands have been repealed in more urbanised provinces such as Sindh. No public consultation, invitation of public objection, approval by planning agencies through a stipulated process or even competitive bidding - which is the bare minimum yardstick of fairness - are applied in these deals. This state of affairs clearly establishes the fact that the laissez-faire capitalism has outperformed all the logical, regulatory and administrative approaches in respect of land development. Scores of land development schemes that are randomly announced in various cities are examples.

Schemes for land and housing for the low income groups have not been prepared for a very long time. There has been no dearth of flagship projects with political tags but their scale and profile is extremely limited. Traditionally, existing pattern of land ownership has a direct bearing on its transition in the urban scenario. The clan influences, appropriation and possession of land were the important factors that governed the directions of development. When land was in private ownership under traditional landlords, they lobbied with the public sector officials to devise the development policies/priorities to maximise their own benefit.

Planning and development of communication schemes, transportation projects and investment in infrastructure schemes were largely manipulated on the same basis. The fringes of large cities are the most important choices in this regard. The north western outskirts of Karachi is one of the main locations where local landlords have traditionally benefited from the growth of the city.

The poor, lower middle and middle income groups in the country have an extremely constrained access to housing credit which is the key prerequisite to home ownership. The cities, which account for nearly 40 per cent of population, do not have subsidy of any kind in the domain of housing. Even when subsidies were available, mechanisms of distribution were not compatible for the real needy to benefit from them.

As the commercial financial institutions do not have credit line touching base with socio-economics of the downtrodden, public credit agencies becomes the sole point of hope. The House Building Finance Corporation is struggling to survive due to a number of operational and management reasons. It requires instant overhauling in the larger interest of genuine clients that it is supposed to serve.

Proper preparation and updating of land records and their communication to all stakeholder groups is a pre-requisite to effective land management. Three decades ago, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation commissioned a broad based study of urban land use and management. The study, which was supported by the World Bank, aimed at analysing the various trends and dynamics of land utilisation patterns. The study provided a comprehensive analysis of the urban land market, real estate trends in various key locations, informal settlements and legal and administrative elements affecting the overall land supply and development. Whereas the study was undertaken as part of the Karachi Special Development Project under donor assistance, it served as a useful tool for understanding the Karachi’s land use and development scenario.

Recently, the housing experts at the NED University conducted a study with an objective to analyse the accessibility of land for housing. It verified the fact that increasing distortions in planning, management and distribution procedures has alienated the poor from accessing land.

Proper governance of land and its transparent and judicious disposal are prerequisites to ensuring access by the poor to housing. It must be clearly understood that land is such a resource which cannot be regenerated. Its inappropriate usage must be checked.

An effective means to deal with this vital issue is to structure an information base which provides factual knowledge without dispute. The creation of such a resource shall frustrate corrupt practices by itself. Building of information base shall help streamline the transactions, land use planning as well as preparation of overall development scenario for the urban contexts. Modern day markets can only be enhanced through availability of up to date information that creates level playing fields for all stakeholders under relevant regulatory framework.

As a starting point, it may be started from few cities such as Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Thereafter it can be applied to all the cities and regions in the country.

A housing resource centre in each district of the country is also a doable option. This centre can be equipped with information base, housing choice options and capacity to serve the needy and underprivileged. A pilot project can help in testing this workable institutional alternative.