KHAAR (Bajaur Agency), Jan 26: The Afghan government has put a ban on timber export, triggering a sharp rise in its price and causing deep concern among the investors in the Pakistani timber market.

The price of the much sought-after Afghan timber has registered a 50 to 100 per cent increase following the decision by the Afghan government. 

Local timber merchants said the price of the high-quality Afghan timber has shot up from Rs300 per square foot to Rs650 psf.

The situation has been further compounded by the political administration in Pakistani tribal areas, which has refused to grant permits to take the Afghan timber to different areas of the country.

The situation, said the merchants, on one hand had brought windfall to some, while, it had, on the other, turned some others bankrupt.

They said that the tribal timber merchants had leased out forests in Afghanistan and had invested millions of rupees in the lucrative   business, waiting for the logs to be transported to Pakistan when the axe fell in the shape of the ban, which had placed them on the verge of losing their investment.

The trade was carried out with the Afghan merchants in Kunar province.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, a group of the tribal merchants expressed deep concern over the ban and termed the decision cruel.

Chairman of the Bajaur Timbers Action Committee, Haji Khan Gul, said that hundreds of the merchants risked losing their heavy investments, which amounted, according to him, to a total of Rs2.20  billion. “The tribal people have suffered enough during the decades of Afghan war and needed to be compensated. We pay taxes to the Afghan authorities,” he said.

He said the ban would also affect the jobs of thousands of people in the area.

He appealed to the Afghan government to lift the ban for at least a month, to enable the merchants to recover their money.

The Pakistani authorities, however, said that they discouraged tribal people from travelling to Afghanistan, for their own security, and to save them from humiliation and harassment at the hands of the Afghan authorities in Kunar and other areas.

It is learnt that the Pakistani authorities have cancelled timber  permits of 47 people, issued to them about three months ago, causing further anxiety amongst the timber merchants.