Author: Jawed Ali Khan
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Thesis no. HS-90-05
Year: 1990
Academic Program: Human Settlement (HS)
Type: Thesis (M.Sc.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 1984
Examination Committee: Raymon W. Archer (Chairperson); Hans Detlef Kammeier, Nazrul Islam (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: The supply of land for housing development in the cities of the market economy developing countries is usually insufficient to meet the demand and need due to the limitations of the urban development system under private land ownership and the land market. This system encourages land speculation and excludes a large proportion of population the low-income sector from securing land for housing. But in Karachi where land is predominantly owned by the government, the government has also failed to control the land market. As a result the present rapid land price escalation bars a large segment of the population from access to land on which to build their housing. This study investigates why the government is unable to make advantage of its land ownership to make land accessible to the low-income population of Karachi. The study identifies the roles and functions of various government and private organizations involved in the subdivision of government land for housing development. These organizations include the Board of Revenue and its management at the provincial government level, the Karachi Development Authority as an agent of the government, the cooperative housing societies as nonprofit consumer institutions, and the private developers as competitive participants in the land market plus the pirate land subdividers as illegal land subdividers for profit. The study found that the potential advantage of the government land ownership is adversely affected by the absence of a housing policy at the federal and provincial government levels and by the absence of institutional arrangements by which the distribution of the government land can be guided by deliberate government policies and strategies. Therefore, there is need to frame a national housing policy to solve the problem of housing the urban poor. To achieve coordinated and integrated development of the government land, the government should consider the establishment of a high powered intermediary committee to guide and coordinate land development in Karachi.
Scholarship Donor(s): Carl Duisberg-Gesellscaft e.v. The Federal Republic of Germany
Note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
Advisory: Full-text is available at https://library.ait.ac.th/ (accessible to local ip address only)
