KOHAT: MNA Shehryar Afridi of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has said that selecting a site for construction of an oil refinery is not the prerogative of the provincial government, but that of the federal government which has made it controversial by delaying it unnecessarily.

Addressing a function arranged by the lawyers’ community here, Mr Afridi said that the provincial government could only provide land for the refinery in Shakardarra or Khushalgarh where it had been just proposed, but not approved.

He said that the lawyers were important part of the society who knew about politics and by using their profession they could play a vital role in getting due rights of Kohat.

Shehryar says this would end dispute between the two districts

According to a statement issued here, he said that for construction of the multi-billion project the Hungarian oil exploration company MOL was playing the role of a bridge to attract any international company to make investment in the project.

The PTI MNA suggested that to solve the dispute two oil refineries should be constructed; one in Kohat and the other in Karak district. He threatened that if Kohat’s right was usurped he would go to any extent for snatching it from the federal government, which had already deprived Kohat of mega projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plan.

He feared that the intentions of the federal government did not seem positive in this regard and it should share details of the refinery in black and white with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to end the anxiety being created between the residents of Kohat and Karak.

He said that the investor should go for logic and feasibility according to which water was present in abundance in Kohat, which was a pre-requisite for the refinery.

He said that it was all propaganda that the refinery had been approved by the chief minister in Karak. He also said that MPs from Karak should also refrain from making false claims in this regard.

Mr Afridi claimed that to a question asked from the government in the National Assembly he was told that the western route of CPEC, which passed through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was not feasible.

“That is why the KP government has taken the case to the court,” he said. The PTI MNA said that the KP government’s share in the National Finance Commission award was 14.6 per cent, but it was being paid 1.76 per cent of that. He announced Rs1 million grant for the lawyers.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2016