On February 11, 2016, the chief justice of Pakistan gave very critical remarks about the status of housing for low income groups. He directed the government to take swift measures to take appropriate and swift steps to address this vital issue. However, the past performance of the regime on this count is not impressive at all.

The present government claims to be democratic and representative on all counts. It has pledged to the polity the access to essentials of life including housing. However, it is found that the option of housing to the urban poor -- which now constitutes an ever expanding group -- is all but severely constrained.

It goes without saying that the proportion of urban dwellers is increasing fast. Majority of these new category of residents belong to the lowest economic strata of the society. The direct and indirect impact of state policies has limited the chances to acquire housing for this cross section to an alarming extent. Scientific evidence and research in this domain is replete with examples that inform us about the correlation between homelessness and crime (read terrorism).

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 areas 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 Laws for disposal of urban lands have been repealed in more urbanised provinces such as Sindh.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 establish 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 maximize 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 needy people to take 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 (now a company) is struggling to survive due to a number of operational and management reasons. It requires revamping on pro-poor objectives as it is the only large scale provider of housing loans.

Proper preparation and updating of land records and their communication to all stakeholder groups is a pre-requisite to effective land management. Twenty five years 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 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. However, like many similar isolated and project-bound attempts, it soon lost its significance as it could neither be updated nor properly utilised for generating any appropriate planning and development mechanism. The other irony is the fact that vital issues identified in the study are still valid today. It will be useful to update this vital study with fresh field research and relate the present land situation from the prism of the findings of that study to understand the prevailing dynamics.

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 mean 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. 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 create 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, with right of access to all without any constraint. Thereafter it can be applied to all the cities and regions in the country.