ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms (CCIR) has approved the merger of National Housing Authority (NHA) into the Policy and Planning Wing of the Ministry of Housing and Works and has directed it to resolve matters relating to the merger in consultation with Establishment Division.
The approval was granted during a meeting of CCIR held on January 7, 2021, under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Federal Shafqat Mahmood, sources said.
In this regard, the CCIR directed that the Ministry of Housing and Works should resolve all ancillary matters relating to the proposed merger in consultation with the Establishment Division.
As per details, CCIR was informed by the housing ministry that the federal government had earlier approved the merger of NHA into Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) under the cabinet division.
As such, the Ministry of Housing and Works transferred all assets of NHA, as well as the budget, to NAPHDA. Later on, Cabinet Division, vide O.M. dated August 13, 2020, requested the ministry for issuance of notification of merger of NHA into NAPHDA to effectively implement the cabinet’s decision.
However, NAPHDA, in their letter dated September 16, 2020, had conveyed the complications involved in the merger due to civil servants status of the employees of NHA. It requested the housing ministry to retain the NHA until they were ready to surrender the budget of NHA. Later in October, NAPHDA in a letter again raised observations regarding the employees and liabilities of NHA.
According to sources, Ministry of Housing and Works has intended to merge NHA into its Policy and Planning Wing to address the issue of the status of employees of NHA being civil servants and to help strengthen the professional capacity of the ministry.
The Ministry of Housing and Works forwarded the case to Institutional Reforms Cell (IRC) on December 8, 2020, for examination and to a proposal for declaring NHA as Policy and Planning Wing.
In response, IRC expressed the desire to place a summary titled “Request for Declaring National Housing Authority as Planning and Policy Wing of Ministry of Housing and Works” for the consideration of the CCIR as per requirements.
