ISLAMABAD, June 14: The National Assembly was on Saturday informed that the plan to construct one million housing units for federal government employees was being fine-tuned.

Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Kakar told the house that the Pakistan Housing Authority was planning to provide flats or houses to the federal government employees from BPS-1 to 17 on retirement.

He said land measuring 15.6, 8.9 and 6.9 acres had been acquired in I-16/3, G-11/4 and G-10/2, respectively. He said 234 acres had also been identified in Kuri area of Zone-IV, but the Islamabad Capital Territory Zoning Regulations 1992 prohibited its utilisation for residential purposes. He said a summary had been made to the Cabinet Division seeking cabinet’s approval for relaxing the rules.

He said schemes would be launched for construction of one million housing units each year for citizens and government employees. Five marla scheme for homeless citizens in the rural areas would also be initiated, where government land is available.

Answering a question, Mr Kakar conceded that the outer walls of block 1 to 21 category-IV quarters in I-9/4 could not be whitewashed for the last ten years due to paucity of funds. He, however, said the flats in all these blocks had been painted internally. He said the outer walls would be painted on their turn during 2008-09 on availability of funds.

He said it was a fact that some allottees of D type quarters in F-6/1 had made encroachment by constructing additional rooms in the courtyard. He said notices had been issued to such allotees to demolish the encroached structures, otherwise the allotment would be cancelled.

The house was informed that the project for upgradation and strengthening of Quaid-i-Azam University would be completed in May 2011. He said Rs50 million were allocated for the project in 2007-08.

Academic blocks will be constructed with a covered area of 75,200 square feet. Two hostels for 424 students will be provided, while 21 residences for university staff will be constructed. Provision of sewage disposal and 1 KVA underground feeder will also be made under the project.

The house was told that various steps had been taken to enhance literacy rate at the primary level in the federal government schools. All the children between the age group 5-6 are given admission in class-1. He said 34 federal government junior model schools had been redesignated as Islamabad model schools in the first phase in order to bring them to the level of Islamabad model colleges. Qualified English teachers have been appointed in the primary level schools of Islamabad.

Federal Directorate of Education has introduced centralised annual examination for Class-V and VII. Most of the schools have been converted into English medium in order to meet the modern day requirements. Mathematics Olympiad is being held annually in the schools to help the students understand concepts of mathematics through various activities.

The education minister said free textbooks were being provided to the students up to class X. He said well-structured in-service teachers’ training setup was in place to impart training to all the teachers of FG schools and colleges.

The house was informed that at present there were 288 faculty teachers in the federal government universities who have obtained PhD degrees from foreign institutions. Responding to a question about the procedure for verification of the degrees, he said all universities usually internally scrutinised original degrees and certificates at the time of appointment as faculty member. It is only in case of doubt that the foreign degree awarding university is contacted for the purpose.

The house was told that the present number of primary, middle and higher secondary schools for boys and girls in Islamabad was 382. This included 209 primary schools, 53 middle and 120 higher secondary schools. The number of schools for boys is 152 while that of girls schools 230.

There are only 10 FG schools where transport facility is available to for the students. None of the principals of FG schools is provided with official transport.

He said no seats had been allocated for the students belonging to minorities for admission in the federal government educational institutions.