Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
President Dr Arif Alvi has called for adopting green and sustainable building practices in the country’s housing and construction sector, to promote sustainable living and moderate consumption to conserve energy and limited natural resources.
He added that rethinking, redesigning, rebuilding and reusing materials and resources had become critical for promoting climate-friendly and resilient infrastructure in the country.
The President was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Building Materials Exhibition 2023 organized by the IAP’s Rawalpindi Chapter, Friday.
Chairman IAP, Architect Saad Mehmood Khan, Chairman IAP Rawalpindi/Islamabad Chapter, Architect Fawad Suhail Malik, architects, graduates, and members of the housing and construction industry attended the ceremony. Earlier, the President also inaugurated the Building Materials Exhibition 2023.
Addressing on the occasion, the president said architecture was important as it provided the basis for the construction industry and provided quality and aesthetically pleasing accommodations to the people. He said that the buildings should be designed with in-built mechanisms to make them differently-abled person friendly as well as by making rooftops usable by growing vegetables and greenery, besides installing solar panels to provide green and clean energy.
The president said construction and development activities by the public sector contribute greatly in increasing economic activity and injecting liquidity into the system which further helped in the growth of industry and providing employment to the people. He quoted the examples of the Mughal dynasty and Sher Shah Suri who invested public money in developing roads, buildings, monuments, and other public places which greatly contributed to the prosperity of the Indo-Pak sub-continent.
The president further said that the trend of parking money in buying plots and buildings prevented its circulation for promoting business, trade and investment, and contributed to slowing down the economic and financial activities in the country.
He said that buildings and houses should be constructed with the underlying objective of providing decent and affordable living to all segments of society, including the poor and the underprivileged. He said that the use of black money for buying plots and buildings and investing in the construction sector should be checked and discouraged, besides systems should be strengthened to disallow the creation of black money at all.
