Pakistan, Sept. 30 -- Adequate and affordable housing is a global issue and one of the key challenges that highly urbanised and affluent societies, as well as developing and economically stretched societies, are equally exposed to, with certain peculiarities. Canada, for many decades, has offered a range of federal, provincial, and territorial programs to help low- and moderate-income households access affordable housing through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. There are similar successful examples in India, Turkey, South Africa and Malaysia as well. However, in Pakistan, any such policy interventions and government endeavours for low-income housing never matured and became a reality.

In Pakistan, there is a serious shortfall...