Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Tuesday said the federal cabinet had approved an agreement between the Ministry of Housing and Akhuwat Islamic Microfinance in an effort to build five million housing units for low-income people.
Flanked by Minister for Law Farogh Naseem here at a press conference to share the cabinet’s decisions, she said under the accord, a fund of Rs 5 billion would be utilized to give interest-free loans of Rs 100,000 to Rs 1 million to the poor people. Priority would be given to those homeless people who were registered under the ‘poverty score card survey’, she added. Dr Firdous said the cabinet also approved an internship programme under which the Ministry of Communications would give technical training and employment to some 35,000 students every year.
She said the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan approved solar power projects to meet electricity needs of army on build-operate-transfer basis.
The cabinet was told that a large share of the army resources was spent on supply of uninterrupted supply to houses, offices, parks and hospitals in garrisons and cantonments. In order to bring down the expenditure, solar plants would be set up to reduce dependence on expensive power and replace it with cheap electricity.
The cabianet was also given a detailed briefing on the alternative sources of energy. It was informed that a pilot project had been started to connect farmers and markets for sale of everyday items and to end the role of middlemen.
A mobile application had been prepared to provide information to the people about the rates of items of essential use, including fruits and vegetables. In the first phase, the app was launched for different sectors of Islamabad and later on the project would be expanded to other big cities.
