Sheikh Zayed Township flat owners seek final chance to pay instalments — Pajhwok

KABUL (Pajhwok): Owners of 521 flats in Sheikh Zayed Township in Kabul are at risk of losing their homes over unpaid instalments and are asking the government to give them a final opportunity to settle their outstanding payments before eviction. However, the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MoUDH) maintains that the owners were repeatedly warned and offered a 10 per cent discount to pay their outstanding instalments, but they failed to do so and are now required to vacate their flats. Sheikh Zayed Township is located in the Qasaba area of Kabul’s 15th municipal district. Its foundation stone was laid in 2013, and it was built with financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates. According to the MoUDH, the township was inaugurated in 2018, and its flats were sold to people in instalments by the previous government. Mubashir Azam, a representative of the township’s residents, told Pajhwok that the ministry had decided to repossess 521 flats whose owners had paid less than 50 per cent of the agreed instalments. He added that most of the current owners were ordinary people who had lived in the township for years. “We do not deny that instalment payments have been delayed, but in many cases, the delays have resulted from economic difficulties, unemployment and declining household incomes,” Azam explained. According to him,…