With over 340 branches in 114 cities spread across the country, the BankIslami has been providing services to people across all cities to promote Islamic Finance facilitating the country to achieve goals of digitalization and financial inclusion for the masses.

The focus at BOP is on Low-Cost Housing. Being a public sector bank, BOP has received an overwhelming response from the Governments' markup subsidy scheme (GMSS) for Housing. The bank is engaged in various initiatives of the GoP, GoPb and SBP for the housing & construction industry. At the Federal Government level, BOP is involved with NAPHDA and is an active contributor towards reforms agenda. BOP is the lead bank in consortiums formed by the LDA City Housing Project and Peri-Urban Project of GoPb.

NBP being the nation's largest banking network, is playing a vital role in increasing the level of financial inclusion in Pakistan. NBP has so far successfully facilitated 840 Families to have their own houses/homes and has the honor of extending finance facilities in remote areas of the country.

United Nations, adopting “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, in 1948 had stipulated that housing is a fundamental need for a family unit. But seven...

PMRC was formed in 2015 and commenced its operation in 2018, over the years, PMRC has acted as a catalyst in the housing financing sector, whereby it is providing long-term financing to primary mortgage lenders at subsidized and fixed rates, enabling them to launch mortgage products for end consumers particularly in the low- and middle-income segment.

The 2017 Population census-estimated Karachi's population around 14 million, but this number is politically contentious, with many locals estimating a number closer to 22 million. It has a huge uncontrolled population growth that, accompanied by poor planning, has meant infrastructure - water supply, sewerage, electricity, gas, communications – is proving insufficient to cope with its growing population needs.

The plans and construction departments that approve the structure and design of a building should be privatized and given to highly efficient companies to reduce the current excessive delays in plan approvals.

Government development authorities such as CDA, LDA, KDA, and others need to hold more regular auctions of commercial land under a predefined time period. To provide clear titled land to buyers and avoid exorbitantly high land rates.

In the last 30-40 years, Karachi has faced a situation of extreme neglect from powerful quarters of the country. Massive corruption, mismanagement, and authority abuse have hampered economic activity and proven to be predicaments that the powers that be have failed to address.

In a multipronged approach to tackle the devastating economic impact of the pandemic, Prime Minister Imran Khan introduced a fixed tax regime along with an amnesty scheme that assisted the construction industry and consequently the country's economy.

The prime minister’s low-cost housing initiative is under threat due to the rise in steel and cement prices. The construction costs of projects have gone up which could result in the builders not being able to deliver in the price limits set by the government, rendering the whole initiative unsustainable.

Managing Editor GVS sits down with Mr. Razak Dawood to understand the export challenges faced by the government and how it intends to deliver. He provides a framework that the government is working on to cope with all these challenges and to achieve the targets set forth.