PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was informed on Thursday that despite the lifting of a ban by the previous government in 2016, the transportation of illegal timber from a remote valley of Chitral district hadn’t been allowed causing losses to the exchequer and investors.

Through a calling attention notice, Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Sahibzada Sanaullah said the last PTI government in the province had authorised the transportation of illegally-cut timber from Arandu, Chitral, after imposing a fine at the rate of Rs1,100 per cubic foot (cft) on deodar and Rs600 per cft on kail.

Speaker Mushtaq Ghani chaired the sitting.

Minister says cabinet to discuss matter, govt won’t encourage illegal forest harvesting

The lawmaker said around 62,000cft wood was transported from Arandu to the market when the Pakistan Army in Malakand division stopped the movement of the illegal timber from Chitral.

He said the government had also authorised the transportation of 343,142cft illegal timber from Kohistan, while 22,106cft was reported in Torghar district.

Mr Sanaullah asked the government to implement the previous provincial cabinet’s decision on ban lifting to prevent the destruction of the timber valuing billions of rupees.

The forest department had measured the timber dumped in Arandu area bordering Afghanistan to be 1,507,382cft.

In light of the cabinet’s decision, a third-party validation committee comprising officials of the National Accountability Bureau, provincial inspection team, forest department and district administration was authorised to verify and validate the illegal timber.

Officials said the NAB relinquished the third-party validation due to unspecified reasons.

They said the Pakistan Army was not included in the third-party validation at that time but currently, the army would oversee the whole exercise.

In June 2018, the military authorities based in Swat had moved a letter, whose copy is with Dawn, showed that the Pakistan Army had framed a mechanism for the validation/verification for disposal of illegal timber stock in Kohistan, Torghar, and Arandu forests.

“Illicit timber will be retrieved from forests and placed at central point that is Chakdara Depot by forest department for validation by the army as third party,” said the letter.

It said the validation procedure would begin when all illegal timber was placed in Chakdara and that validation at various locations was not feasible due to the limited number of troops available for the task and the inconvenience facing the forest department.

Responding to the calling attention notice, law and parliamentary affairs minister Sultan Mohammad Khan said the cabinet would discuss a summary regarding the transportation of illegal timber.

He said the government would not encourage illegal harvesting of forests and would take appropriate measures in that respect.

Responding to another calling attention notice moved by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA Fazal Shakoor Khan regarding the conversion of land of the defunct Charsadda Paper Mills into a housing society, the law minister said the conversion of industrial land for commercial or other purposes was illegal.

Special assistant to the chief minister on industries Abdul Karim Khan said the case was pending with the Supreme Court and the provincial government had directed the advocate general to pursue it.

He said legal commercial activities would not be allowed on the land of the paper mills.

The lawmakers held discussion on the constitution of National Finance Commission Award and delay in the payment of dues by the centre to the province on account of net hydel profit.

Opposition MPAs Khushdil Khan and Inayatullah Khan suggested that the provincial government ask the federal government to convene a meeting of the commission without delay.

They said KP’s population had increased after former Fata was merged with it.

The MPAs insisted that KP would suffer financially if the award was delayed.

They said the provincial government should demand the continuation of one percent share of KP in the NFC Award on account of war against terrorism and three percent share for the merged tribal districts.

Minister Sultan Mohammad said the commission had been constituted and it had held several meetings on the matter.

He said Punjab and KP governments would create hurdles to the announcement of the NFC Award but the PPP in Sindh might create problems.

The minister sought the opposition’s role in that respect.

Earlier, the opposition benches criticised the federal government for not giving a posthumous national award to ANP leader Barrister Haroon Bilour, who was martyred in the pre-2018 election suicide attack.

They said the sacrifices of Bilour’s family couldn’t be ignored and that the government should announce the award on Aug 14.

The assembly passed a resolution condemning the torture and detention of daily wagers from Dir district by the police in Chakwal under the Punjab Temporary Residential Act, 2015, and demanded of the federal government to take notice of such incidents.

Another resolution was moved by Dr Sumera Shams of the PTI for the inclusion of civic education in the curriculum of secondary schools or the promotion of co-curricular activities in secondary schools seeking the knowledge of political and democratic process for strengthening democratic society in the country.

The house passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa urban Mass Transit (Amendment) Bill, 2019, after accommodating two amendments of Inayatullah Khan.

The law minister introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

The chair later adjourned the sitting until 2pm today (Friday).

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2019