Syed Asim Ali Bukhari
The Prime Minister of Pakistan has recently announced a substantial incentive package for Pakistan’s construction industry. It is aimed to accelerate the growth of the country’s economy, especially during the COVID-19 situation.
The construction industry is one of the highest contributors to the country’s economy by accounting for 2.5% of the country’s GDP and bringing in US$ 386.8 million of net foreign direct investments during 2018-19. Approx. 8% of the total labor force in Pakistan is associated with this industry. According to the World Bank report, a backlog of 10 million housing units exists in Pakistan in addition to the demand of 400,000 housing units annually.With the vision of fulfilling this gap, the Prime Minister of Pakistan has launched the “Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme”. This initiative is planned to build 5 million affordable houses in 5 years.
The scheme is expected to bring investments of around US$20 to US$25 billion from a number of countries including Singapore, Malaysia, China, UK and other parts of Europe and prove as a reviving potion to more than 40 allied industries of Pakistan such as electronics, steel, and Iron industry, wood products, and cement industry, etc.Under the construction industry’s incentive package, investors investing in the Naya Pakistan Housing scheme will be exempted from 90% fixed tax and withholding tax. In addition, a subsidy of Rs.30 billion has been approved for this housing scheme.
Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme is an initiative by the current government which has also envisioned a Clean and Green future for our country. So, one can logically assume that this housing scheme being launched in todays “Clean and Green Pakistan” will also be a ‘Green Housing Scheme’.
The “Naya Pakistan”is supposed to be a cleaner and greener Pakistan. So, by equating logic, all the schemes launched by the current government should be inherently and ultimately promoting the Clean and Green vision. Then why are the 5 million houses being built under this initiative not being planned to be Green Houses/ Buildings? The current publicly available information on this housing scheme has no mention of the houses being built according to Green Building standards or the engagement or even preference of Green value chain partners in this initiative.
A complementarypart of the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme is the resultant positive economic effect on severalother industries. However, given the magnified focus of the current government on the country’s environmental sustainability, the effects of this initiative should also be taken into consideration. In Pakistan, the aforementioned allied industries have the potential to produce adverse environmental impacts.
Ifthis Scheme is not implemented as a Green housing scheme then itcanprove to be contradictory to the Clean and Green Pakistan vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Rather than reducing environmental degradation, it can potentially increase numerous forms of pollution in the already environmentally unsustainable country.
The vision of a Clean and Green Pakistan needs Clean and Green partners for its realization. A visioncannot materialize without the creation of synergy across all the concerned stakeholders.
If the Climate Ministry or the Environmental Protection Agency of Pakistan works toward making Pakistan Clean and Green but the rest of the industries continuewith an environmentally unsustainable pattern, the vision can never become a reality.
