The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday expressed concern over illegal logging in the province, especially in Hazara division, and asked the forest department to take stringent measures to check the unlawful practice.
The PAC, which met at the K-P house here, also stressed the need for growth in the forest area. The meeting was presided over by K-P provincial assembly Speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmati, who is also the PAC chairman.
The meeting observed that organised gangs of lumberjacks were robbing the area of its natural beauty and that records suggest that the same offenders had been arrested repeatedly in the past.
The PAC was told that for curbing the trend of illegal logging and timber smuggling, a high-powered cabinet committee has been formed with Wajid Ali Khan its head and provincial ministers Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Zahir Shah and Shuja Salim Khan as members.
The PAC was told that the committee would prepare recommendations to lift the ban on logging that was imposed some 18 years back. The cabinet committee will submit its recommendation to the provincial cabinet for approval shortly.
The PAC was told that the lifting of ban on logging by owners would not only benefit the owners financially, but would also control deforestation.
The PAC was informed that under the 18th Amendment, the powers of Pakistan Forest Institute have been devolved to the environment ministry, which, under a comprehensive anti-pollution plan in Hazara and Malakand divisions, received an £18 million grant from Britain.
The PAC, while expressing its dissatisfaction over the earlier probe into the theft of an official environment ministry vehicle and ordered a fresh inquiry.
The PAC also directed for the early recovery of Rs1.5 million from different government departments that were pointed out by the audit department.
The committee also ordered the recovery of Rs10 million from railways for overcharging the food department for the transportation of wheat from Karachi’s Port Qasim to Havelian Railway station.
The PAC ordered a probe into the non-payment of Rs142.840 million that the K-P food director had taken as a loan and did not pay back.
Members of the PAC Abdul Akbar Khan, Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha, Abdul Shakoor Khan and Ziyad Akram Durrani, Auditor General Muhammad Ayub, Environment Secretary Zahoor Ahmed Khalil, Provincial Assembly Secretary Amanullah Khan, Chief Forest Conservator Naseem Javed and other officials also attended the meeting.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2011.
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