Balloting Held for 720 Newly Constructed Flats, Successful Allottees Announced

**Islamabad:** Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has conducted the balloting for 720 newly constructed flats at the Sundar Industrial Estate under a landmark welfare initiative for homeless industrial workers. The chief minister personally pressed the button to initiate the balloting process and congratulated the successful workers.

During the ceremony, Maryam Nawaz directed the concerned authorities to hand over possession of the flats to the successful families within seven days. She said that the state, acting with the care of a mother, had ensured permanent housing for 720 hardworking families, freeing them from the burden of monthly rent and the fear of eviction.

The chief minister said that industrial workers in Punjab have a fundamental right to dignified housing and that the provincial government is practically guaranteeing this right. She issued special instructions that widows and persons with disabilities should be provided flats immediately, without being included in the balloting process.

Maryam Nawaz also announced that an additional 1,872 flats for industrial workers would be completed within the next 18 months to extend the facility to more families. She further directed that the construction of a bachelor hostel for 700 workers at Quaid-e-Azam Business Park in Sheikhupura be completed within three months.

For the convenience of workers with special needs, the chief minister ordered that they be allocated ground-floor flats to avoid daily life difficulties. On the occasion, she personally called an industrial worker from Kasur, Nadeem Tahir, to congratulate him and advised him to keep his parents with him, saying that their prayers had brought him this happiness.

Provincial Labour Minister Manshaullah Butt, while briefing the ceremony, said that the projects for free flats, plots and bachelor hostels for industrial workers were a continuation of the vision of former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. According to official figures, 480 workers from Kasur and 240 from Lahore were declared successful in the balloting.

The total cost of the housing project at Sundar Industrial Estate is Rs 3.4 billion, with each flat costing more than Rs 3.6 million.