E/C.12/PAK/CO/1 Right to housing 71. The Committee is concerned at the acute shortage of adequate housing and the lack of financing programmes for low-income families. It is also concerned at the high number of persons living without legal tenure in urban informal settlements (katchi abadis), with limited access to basic services. It is further concerned that people without secure tenure in urban areas and people living in areas where development projects such as the Orange Metroline project in Lahore are being carried out are often subject to forced evictions without due process or adequate alternative housing or compensation (art. 11). 72. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify its efforts to: (a) Increase security of tenure by taking normative and policy measures, by increasing the number of social housing units and improving their maintenance, and by providing affordable financing programmes for low-income families; (b) Improve living conditions in katchi abadis, including in terms of access to health, education and other public services; (c) Regularize informal settlements, introduce or upgrade their basic infrastructure and improve living conditions therein; (d) Bring the legal framework on eviction, especially affecting those without tenure or with insecure tenure, in line with international standards and ensure that, in case of eviction, the affected people are consulted prior to the eviction, that procedural safeguards are observed and that adequate alternative housing is provided; (e) Consider the Committee’s general comments No. 4 (1991) on the right to adequate housing and No. 7 (1997) on forced evictions, as well as the basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement. Water and sanitation 73. While noting the progress made by the State party, the Committee remains concerned that a high number of people still have no access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities (art. 11). 74. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify its efforts to increase access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, including the full implementation of the National Drinking Water Policy 2009. Right to health 75. The Committee is concerned at the very low level of public funding allocated to the health sector, at the insufficient coverage of the National Health Insurance Programme and at the weak public health system, which has led to a heavy reliance on private health services. It is particularly concerned at the high maternal and infant mortality rates. 76. The Committee recommends that the State party make every effort to increase public expenditure in the health sector, to further expand the coverage of the National Health Insurance Programme, to strengthen its public health system with a view to providing free quality basic health services to all, including disadvantaged and marginalized individuals, and to reduce the maternal, infant and under-5 mortality rates. Sexual and reproductive health 77. The Committee is concerned that abortion is criminalized in the State party except when the life of a mother is at risk, which has led to a very high incidence of unsafe clandestine abortions. This has in turn led to many women suffering from life-threatening complications that in more than 5 per cent of cases have resulted in death. It is also concerned that about half of pregnancies are not intended and that women have limited access to sexual and reproductive health services and information thereon. 78. The Committee recommends that the State party: 11