MOCC concerned over construction of expo centre on farmland

Climate ministry secretary writes to K-P chief secretary urging him to stop the process

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC) has decided to intervene as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government plans to hand over land of the Agriculture Research Institute Tarnab (ARIT) to builders to construct and exhibition centre.

MoCC Secretary Syed Abu Ahmed Akif has written a letter to the K-P chief secretary, in which the federal ministry has expressed their concerns over the matter. Akif further urged the chief secretary to do what he can to convince the provincial government not to hand the land over for commercial purposes and to save it for environmental and agricultural research.

The Agricultural Research Institute Tarnab (ARIT), situated 15 kilometres east of Peshawar on the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, had been established in 1908.

For over a century, it was the premier institute for agricultural research and development in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Research conducted there helped develop fruit nurseries, quality seeds, olive orchards, apart from testing soil and water, controlling insects and diseases, germination and food processing.

The first director general of ARIT, an Australian who served till 1931, estimated that the facility would require at least 200 acres to conduct agriculture research.

“We Pakistanis, on the other hand, are hardly concerned about the future,” MoCC Secretary Akif wrote.

“We will always sell the future to make a fast buck in the present. Hence it is not surprising that there is an outburst of mindless environmental destruction aimed at capturing every inch of green land, cutting every tree, mowing every bush and plucking every plant,” he added.

“Replace the orchards with conference rooms and food courts. Exchange the fruit nurseries for exhibition halls and convention centres. Let auditoriums, banquet halls and VIP helipads be the new alternate to agriculture research and development, build sand and cement structures today,” Akif complained, adding that after all, who knows if tomorrow will come or not?

Noting that it was tragic, Akif said that in late May, 25 acres of the 110-year-old Tarnab Farm were chopped down and handed over to builders and traders to build a new Expo Centre in Peshawar.

Meanwhile, an official of a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) told The Express Tribune that they will challenge the destruction of the farm in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) after Eid holidays end.

Zaheer Khan Foundation (ZKF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abid Zareef Khan said that the NGO, along with locals and 200 nursery owners had also protested against the construction of the centre on a piece of land which was being used for agriculture research.

Khan added that the issue first rose in 2014 when the federal government set aside Rs2.5 billion in the Public Sector Development Programmed (PSDP) of the provincial government to build an Expo Centre.

The contract to build the centre was won by a private company which had previously built Expo Centres in Karachi and Lahore.

Till 2016, the provincial government resisted the federal government in building the centre on a portion of ARIT’s land.

Instead, the K-P government offered to build the Expo Centre in Rashakai along the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway. The provincial government subsequently allocated 1,000 kanals of land to build an Export Promotion Zone (EPZ) there.

But the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce reportedly insisted that the centre is built on ARIT land.

Subsequently, the provincial government last year transferred 200 kanals of land from the institute to the industries department following mutation. K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak subsequently broke ground for the export zone project at the site recently.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2017.