PESHAWAR, April 27: 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.