DHA: Dream Housing Authority
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Even if you resist an investment advice from them and even if they do their best to respect your wish, a suggestion to buy a plot or a file in the Defense Housing Authority (DHA) would still slip out of their lips like a piece of gold dropping out of the jewelry box as its lid is slammed shut.
You may think that these self-appointed advisors are professional agents specializing in real estate who are sharing their trade secret with you. Not true. In fact, anyone of your thirteen-year-old knees, a childhood friend that you have not met for decades who has moved to UK, a professional banker, a retired army officer, a physician practicing in the Middle East, your handyman, a plumber, or even a car mechanic can enlighten you with the safest strategy to make real money in a really short time. And once they offer you these two recommendations - second being about purchasing a file in the Baharia Town - you can be assured that you are surrounded by good people, people who care, not the ones who are out there to get you.
Not only that the proposal to get super-rich-super-fast does not require a specialist or professional acumen as mentioned; the recipe is also not confined to a specific province of Pakistan, a city or a geographical location. People from Peshawar, to Quetta, to Lahore, to Multan to Karachi, all of them rely on the quality product of the Defense Housing Authority to ensure their financial well-being.
What do I mean by a loose term like ‘financial well-being?’ In simple terms, it means how a single purchase at the preliminary stage of the new project of DHA can bring an old man an eternal monetary comfort after retirement. Its profits can help him pay for the college education of his children, buy a new Toyota corolla prism, or afford an extravagant wedding ceremony of his daughter. Purchasing two plots together is even better: you can sell one, and with the proceeds build a house on the other.
How do the numbers work? Spend one hundred today and it will become five, seven or even a thousand, guaranteed, in just a few years. If you are born with a lucky star the multiplication factor can be fifteen or more. Can any stock market beat that? It is much safer as well with no downtrend whatsoever, no concerns of an economic crisis, no fear of slowing pace, no worries about inflation, deflation, leveraged buyouts, or chapter eleven bankruptcy. Because of that - a long trail of solid performance and excellent quality of end product - for every financial task Pakistanis have a single solution: DHA. And their belief in it is as strong as their faith in God Almighty.
Had Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the father of the nation, witnessed the progress of Pakistan’s real estate, he would have amended his original advice to the nation to this: “Unity, Discipline and faith (only in DHA).”
Had Allama Muhammad Iqbal seen the rise of Defense, he might also have altered the meaning of a separate homeland to an independent, top of the line housing society for the Muslims of the Sub-continent. May be he was dreaming of DHA when he thought of Pakistan, who knows?
And had Fatima Jinnah known its potential, I am sure she would have never run an election campaign against Ayub Khan and settled the issue on a 1,000-yard corner commercial plot.
Looking at it from another angle, it is not the constitution (since it is just a piece of paper), or ideology, religion, political parties or the cricket team which keeps us united as a nation; instead it is the housing project - a real piece of land - and the prospect of making money through it that binds us together. And the funny part is that you do not have to work hard for it, which by the way, our kids learn real fast. They realize they can drive a BMW or an Audi, a Mercedes Benz or a Range Rover without struggle, competition, innovation or craftsmanship.
On a personal level too, living in the DHA comes with its perks. First, it is a status symbol, the attribute of our life which for all practical purposes takes precedence over our religiosity and patriotism. Then, it inculcates a sense of pride in you. Those who reside in it do not flaunt their family background, their professional success, or their contribution to the society as much as they crow about the block of the society they live in. And those who do not live in the Defense, when asked try to evade the question by all means. But if they do not find a way out, they mumble in such a low tone that you will only hear “Gulshi” of Gulshan e Iqbal, the reason for being named as “Gulshi Boys!”
It goes without saying that the have-nots, therefore, idealize it like the infatuation of a young boy who just fell in love with a girl four years older to him and is already engaged with somebody else. The proud owners, unlike the infatuation of the young boy, behave like an adult who after going through the ups and downs of romantic affairs now exactly know what they want: prosperity through ten more plots.
So if you want to get rich, invest in DHA right now. Remember, time is not your friend.
Back to Pakistanlink Homepage
