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Demand to lift ban on cutting trees in Kohistan
PESHAWAR, April 28:
Elected representatives from Kohistan district
have urged the NWFP government to lift a ban
imposed on tree-cutting imposed in 1992 and allow
them to sell trees hit by landslides and
windstorms in the Kohistan range.
Speaking at a news conference here at the Peshawar
PressClub on Tuesday, MPAs Maulana Asmatullah,
Maulana Dildar Ahmed, Sardar Ayub Khan and Nazim
of Kohistan Maulana Obaidullah said that the ban
on tree-cutting had left the poor people with no
other option but to cultivate poppy.
Despite famine-like situation in the hilly
district, they said the local people had destroyed
the poppy crop cultivated over 600 acres. In
response to an appeal made by the NWFP government,
the peasants of Kohistan helped the government in
its drive against the poppy cultivation and
destroyed the crop in the mountainous belt, they
told newsmen.
The removal of fallen trees, they said, would give
some relief to the tree owners who had been
stopped from cutting trees for the last 12 years.
They denied that trees were being cut like carrots
in the Kohistan range. "We are short of proper
roads in the entire district and was impossible to
transport the timber from hilly area to the nearby
district," they added.
MPA Maulana Asmatullah of the Muttahida
Majlis-i-Amal said that all political and
religious parties, social organizations and clans
were opposed to the poppy cultivation, but they
were united to get the ban on tree-cutting lifted.
The MMA governmentwanted to bring a social change
in the area for which the government had approved
a development package of Rs 13,500 million, he
added.
He said all the lawmakers had asked the government
to spend at least 60 per cent of the total package
on construction of roads. A former MNA Malik
Aurangzeb and a former NWFP ministerMalik Sikandar,
both from Kohistan, were also present on the
occasion.
The DAWN
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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