ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday stressed for providing all kinds of facilitation to poor people in getting bank loans and particularly taking care of their self-respect.

Imran Khan expressed these views while presiding over the weekly meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Housing, Construction and Development here.

The State Bank of Pakistan governor briefed the meeting about the provision of loans to the poor and middle class segments of the society on easy installments. Heads of the National Bank of Pakistan, Allied Bank Limited, Meezan Bank, Bank Al-Habib, Habib Bank and Bank of Punjab apprised the prime minister of the provision of loans under the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme.

The meeting was told that with the setting up of special desks at their respective branches, the process of getting loans had been made very easy. The private banks would provide loans both under the Islamic and conventional banking.

The heads of banks assured their full support and cooperation to the government in the promotion of construction sector and facilitating the poor segments of the society for the construction of their own houses. They lauded the prime minister and the government’s economic team for taking measures for business community including the banks keeping in view the situation of COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting was told that technology was being used to make the process of providing loans in short time so that the documents of loan applicants could also be verified early and speedily. The prime minister was told that more private banks would also start providing loans.

The Punjab chief secretary told the meeting that an online portal had been established for the constructors and builders. The portal had so far received 6,994 applications and 54 percent of those had been approved. The meeting was told that in order to avoid delay in approval process, the institutions concerned had also been linked with the online portal. With the provision of a time-line for the approval of applications, the applicant also remained updated about his/her case through the mobile application.

The prime minister urged all the provinces to fully utilise the online portal so that the process of approvals could be made early and transparent.