Reporting snapshot · 6 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz received the 2026 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award at the Global Observance of World Habitat Day at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre in Muscat on 5 October, recognising the Punjab government's "Apni Chhat Apna Ghar" affordable-housing programme. The award is one of five Scroll of Honour honours handed out each year by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and Muscat is hosting the broader Urban October programme from 5 to 8 October.
What was awarded and where
The Scroll of Honour Award is the United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s longest-running recognition in the housing sector. UN-Habitat has handed out the award annually since 1989, and the 2026 Global Observance was held at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre in Muscat as the centrepiece of World Habitat Day, the UN observance marked each year on the first Monday of October, according to UN-Habitat’s World Habitat Day 2026 page.
This year’s theme is “Adequate Housing for All”, and Muscat is hosting accompanying Urban October events and seminars on housing and urban development through 8 October, according to UN-Habitat. The five Scroll of Honour winners for 2026 are drawn from among the body’s regional groupings, and the selection was announced on 16 September.
Punjab’s “Apni Chhat Apna Ghar” — “My Roof, My Home” — programme was the Asia and Pacific selection for 2026, Pakistan Today reported on 16 September. The award was formally handed over to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz at the Muscat ceremony on 5 October, Geo News reported.
Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, who was part of the Punjab delegation in Muscat, said the recognition was “a historic, deeply proud and emotional moment for Punjab and Pakistan”. Punjab Education Minister Sikander Hayat credited Housing Minister Bilal Yaseen for the on-the-ground implementation, according to Geo News.
What the programme has delivered
Apni Chhat Apna Ghar was launched on 21 August 2024, according to the programme’s official site, and aims to give eligible residents of Punjab ownership of an apartment or a built house over four and a half years. The scheme is described as Pakistan’s largest and first fully digital housing-finance programme, Pakistan Today reported.
Loans worth more than Rs260 billion have been disbursed for the construction of more than 200,000 houses across two phases: Rs196 billion plus for 134,439 houses in the first phase, and more than Rs62 billion for 65,000 in the second. Around 125,000 families have already moved into houses built under the programme, Pakistan Today reported on 16 September. Marriyum Aurangzeb told reporters in Muscat that more than 200,000 homes have been delivered, Geo News reported.
The programme targets low-income families living in rented homes or informal settlements and offers them subsidised financing to obtain their own homes, according to the official portal. Pakistan Today’s framing of the scheme as the country’s first fully digital housing-finance programme has not been independently audited and should be treated as a programme claim.
Why Punjab, and what the award is meant to recognise
The Scroll of Honour’s stated aim is to acknowledge work that has made “outstanding contributions in the field of human settlements, provision of housing, highlighting the plight of people living in poverty or who have been displaced, developing and improving human settlements and the quality of urban life”, with particular weight on Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, according to UN-Habitat’s Scroll of Honour page.
Past winners include individuals, civil-society organisations, projects and city governments; in 2022, for example, the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) network received a special citation, and in 2021, Egypt’s New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) won for its role in providing safe, affordable social housing, UN-Habitat’s winners list shows. Pakistan itself has had one prior Scroll of Honour winner — Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, Deputy Chairman of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, in 2007 — for post-earthquake housing reconstruction, UN-Habitat’s winners list shows. Maryam Nawaz’s award is therefore only the second time a Pakistan-linked recipient has won a Scroll of Honour since the prize was established in 1989, though five programmes are honoured each year, so the size of the field has grown.
The federal and provincial Apna Ghar efforts are separate tracks and should not be conflated. The federal “Wazir-e-Azam Apna Ghar Programme” was launched on 30 April 2026 with a five-year, Rs3.2 trillion budget targeting 500,000 homes, KhabarWire reported in May. The Scroll of Honour is for the provincial “Apni Chhat Apna Ghar” scheme, which has been running since August 2024 and has already moved families into completed homes.
What is still uncertain
UN-Habitat has not yet published a public list of the five 2026 Scroll of Honour winners or detailed citations on its website. The Winners page was last updated with the 2025 cohort as of late January 2026 and has not yet been refreshed for 2026. Until the official citation is posted, the news rests on UN-Habitat’s earlier selection announcement covered by Pakistan Today, the World Habitat Day 2026 page, and reporting from Geo News and Bol News.
The Punjab government has not disclosed the eligibility criteria used to select the more than 200,000 beneficiaries, and independent audits of the disbursement totals have not been published. The “more than 200,000 homes delivered” figure that Marriyum Aurangzeb gave in Muscat is higher than the roughly 199,439 loans disbursed across the two phases combined that Pakistan Today cited on 16 September; both numbers are programme-reported and the apparent gap is not yet reconciled.
The Scroll of Honour citation, when UN-Habitat publishes it, will set out the precise basis on which the programme was selected over the four other 2026 regional recipients. Until then, this article records what was announced, what was awarded, and what remains to be documented.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 6 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The award ceremony, the venue, the date, the Punjab delegation and the Apni Chhat Apna Ghar details are taken from Geo News' report on the Muscat event. UN-Habitat's role as the awarding body, the Scroll of Honour history, the 2026 World Habitat Day theme and the Muscat hosting of Urban October come from the United Nations' World Habitat Day page and UN-Habitat's Scroll of Honour winners page. The 16 September selection announcement, the disbursement totals and the two-phase structure are taken from Pakistan Today's report, which cited the Punjab government. The federal Apna Ghar programme is referenced for context from a previous KhabarWire article, with no overlap with the provincial programme that is the subject of this article. UN-Habitat has not yet posted the official 2026 winners list on its public website; readers should treat the five-winner framing as established by UN-Habitat's 2026 selection notice rather than by an updated winners page.
- United Nations — World Habitat Day 2026: Adequate Housing for AllPublished 2026 · Primary record: World Habitat Day falls on the first Monday of October (5 October 2026); the 2026 Global Observance is held in Muscat, Oman, 5–8 October 2026.
- UN-Habitat — Scroll of Honour AwardUpdated January 2026 · The awarding body's primary record: the Scroll of Honour was launched in 1989; the winners list confirms Pakistan's prior 2007 Scroll of Honour to Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed for post-earthquake housing reconstruction.
- Pakistan Today — 'Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar' wins UN honour among world's top five housing programmesPublished 16 September 2026 · The selection announcement: Apni Chhat Apna Ghar was selected among the five housing programmes for the 2026 Scroll of Honour Award; the disbursement totals and 125,000 families moved in are taken from this report.
- Geo News — Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz receives UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour AwardPublished 5 October 2026 · Independent report of the Muscat ceremony: Marriyum Aurangzeb's statement; the launch date of 21 August 2024 and the 4.5-year timeline.
- Bol News — Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz receives UN-Habitat award for housing programPublished 5 October 2026 · Independent report of the Muscat ceremony: confirms the award was presented at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre in Muscat for the Apni Chhat Apna Ghar housing programme.
- KhabarWire — PM Shehbaz launches Rs3.2 trillion Apna Ghar housing programmePublished 1 May 2026 · Internal-link context: the federal "Wazir-e-Azam Apna Ghar" programme is distinct from the provincial Apni Chhat Apna Ghar programme honoured here.
