Pakistan revives ‘white elephant’ luxury housing for MPs

After 16 years of delays, Pakistan has resumed work on a multi-billion-rupee housing project in the capital to provide luxury apartments for members of parliament, officials said Thursday.

The scheme, funded by taxpayers, comes at a time when millions of ordinary Pakistanis are struggling with rising living costs.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA), a subsidiary of the Interior Ministry, has restarted construction of the residential complex, first approved in 2009.

Located in Islamabad’s Red Zone — the city’s high-security district that houses parliament, the presidency, and foreign embassies — the project became mired in disputes.

The project’s original contractor, Habib Rafique Private Limited, remains entangled in court litigation.

Once completed, the project will include 104 luxury apartments and 500 servant quarters adjacent to the existing Parliament Lodges, according to official documents seen by Nukta.

It is divided into five blocks: two residential towers already built, a commercial block with a shopping mall, gym, cafes, and swimming pool, a grand mosque, and a block for servant quarters.

Who pays for it?

The scheme was originally estimated at PKR 3 billion and slated for completion in 2013, but progress stalled repeatedly — first due to land clearance issues, then the 2014 political sit-in at D-Chowk, and later non-payment disputes that led the contractor to walk away in 2016. By then, only a gray structure of one block had been built, at a cost of PKR 1.29 billion.

A revised estimate in 2016-17 put the cost at PKR 8.62 billion, but it was never approved.

The CDA reissued tenders in August 2024, but most firms showed little interest. Eventually, Mian Usman Umar & Company won the contract with the lowest bid. Under a newly revised plan, the project’s cost has now been set at PKR 7.17 billion, of which PKR 1 billion has already been released.

Officials said the revised spending means taxpayers will now bear an additional Rs 5 billion — nearly double the original cost in 2009.

CDA Chairman Muhammad Ali Randhawa told the Senate housing committee that neither the National Assembly nor the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs had assumed responsibility for the project. Instead, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has personally taken charge, pledging completion within six months.