The Estate Office has digitised 28,116 government accommodation allotment files in Islamabad and four other major cities as part of a nationwide reform initiative launched by the Ministry of Housing and Works to ensure transparency. According to an official document cited in the report, all 17,496 allotment files maintained by the Estate Office in Islamabad have been scanned and digitised. In Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar, another 10,620 files out of a total of 11,014 have been digitised. The drive is meant to ensure merit-based allotments and greater administrative efficiency, and it allows federal government employees to apply for accommodation and track their applications through an automated online system.
The digitisation is part of broader administrative reforms aimed at removing manual intervention, improving accountability, and making sure that government accommodation is allotted to eligible federal government employees strictly on merit. As part of the reforms, the Estate Office has developed and put into operation a web-based automated allotment system through which employees can register online for the General Waiting List (GWL), with seniority calculated automatically. The system also provides Short Message Service (SMS) alerts and online application tracking. The department has stopped accepting manual applications, so employees must submit their requests through the online system, which is intended to reduce physical visits to Estate Office facilities and make the process more accessible and transparent.
The document also gives figures on allotments and on the action taken against unauthorised occupation. Between July 2025 and June 2026, 894 government residences in Islamabad were allotted on merit through the General Waiting List system. In another major step, the allotments of 2,200 houses that had been occupied without authority were cancelled, and these residences were then allotted to eligible government employees on the General Waiting List following a survey conducted under the direction of the Federal Cabinet. The reforms also included a policy change on transfers, since the Ministry of Housing and Works withdrew on June 7, 2024 the policy that allowed government employees to transfer their accommodation allotments from other stations to Islamabad.
The e-Office system has become fully operational at all Estate Office stations, and official files are now being processed electronically, which removes manual handling and streamlines the work of the department. Taken together, the measures mark a move toward a technology-driven accommodation management system, with the government seeking to improve transparency, curb irregularities, and ensure a fair distribution of residential facilities among federal employees. The files that remain to be digitised in the four other cities number 394, so the process is nearly complete there, and employees can now use the online system to register for the waiting list, follow the status of their applications, and receive updates by SMS.
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