PESHAWAR, May 3: The chairman of Pakistan Match Manufacturing Association, Mohsin Aziz, has drawn the attention of the provincial government to the alarming situation of the illegal export of immature poplar trees to Afghanistan via Wanna and Gandaf.

The illegal export was previously carried on through Torkham, but due to timely intervention of the concerned departments the practice was considerably controlled there, he said in a statement issued here on Saturday.

But now the mafia had shifted its activities to Wanna and Gandaf and thousands of immature poplar trees were daily being illegally exported to Afghanistan.

This activity was in progress despite a ban on the export of any kind of wood and timber, including poplar wood, under the Export Policy Procedure Order, 2000 and under the provision 5(1) Schedule-I(4) of SRO 48(I)/2000, he added.

Mr Aziz said that because of illegal export to Afghanistan, the price of poplar wood has already shoot up by 100 per cent in the past four months in local market.

If this trend continued it would be no more viable for the safety match industry in the province to operate and maintain the prices of their products at a reasonable level, he cautioned, adding that if the illegal export of poplar wood on such a large scale was not check ed within two years, all the safety match making units in the province would close down.

And such an eventuality would not only break the back of the industry in the province, but would also deprive thousands of workers and their families of their livelihood.

He warned that the non-availability of the poplar wood, due to illegal export to Afghanistan, the NWFP match industry would loose its foreign markets.

Mr Aziz reiterated his appeal to the NWFP government to take up the matter of selling immature poplar tree and their illegal export to Afghanistan with the provincial forests department, the frontier constabulary and the custom authority.—APP