Islamabad-During the first half of the financial year 2017-18, the government released less than half of the allocated amount for repairing government houses in the twin cities.

As per details, the government had allocated Rs2.2 million for repair and maintenance of as many as 2,163 government houses scattered in Rawalpindi and Islamabad during the current financial year. “Out of the total, an amount Rs1.5 million had been allocated for civil division and Rs0.7 million for the E/M Division,” sources in Ministry of Housing and Works said.

However, they said that out of total allocations, Rs0.808 million had been released so far for the 1st half, which the civil and E/M division spent for attending complaints from different houses/flats. “No separate funds are allocated for houses of Category I and II in Sector G-10/3 of Islamabad”, the sources said, adding that the funds had been allocated division wise and not sector wise”.

They said that Central Civil Division-VIII, Pak PWD and Central E/M Division-II were maintaining the houses of categories I and II in Sector G-10/3 including other houses of different categories. They said that the sectors where maintenance work had been carried out by the department included G-9/2, G 10/2, G-10/3, G-11/4, NCRD, Income Tax Colony and TB Centre.

To a question, they said that employees of constitutional bodies were not eligible to get accommodation under Accommodation Allocation Rules, 2002. However, they said that a summary for amendment in the mentioned rules had been submitted to Prime Minister, wherein amendment regarding eligibility of employees of constitutional bodies had also been included. Accordingly, the case of allotment of government accommodation to the employees of constitutional bodies will be decided in accordance with the decision on the summary, they said.

They said that the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) was utilising the interest earned form the amount deposited by members of various housing schemes launched by the authority.

Being a non-profit organisation, the foundation uses its surplus revenues to achieve its purpose or mission, rather than distributing its surplus income to the organisation’s shareholders as profit, they added.

The Foundation is not exempted from tax and pays income tax on profit every year. An amount of Rs615,589,102 of interest was earned from the amount deposited by members in all projects during the last four years, they revealed.