SWABI: Withdrawal of incentives hits Gadoon estate
By Muqaddam Khan
SWABI, Jan 24: Five more industrial units have been closed in the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate owing to short-sighted policies of the federal and provincial governments, and several more units are on the verge of collapse.
Sources in the GAIE told Dawn that the industrial estate which had been badly affected by negative policies of both the governments had lost all hopes of a revival.
An entrepreneur claimed that since the withdrawal of all the incentives by the Nawaz-led government, the industrialists had tried their best to get them restored, but nothing could be done owing to the apathy of industrialists-cum-politicians.
At present, sources said, out of 360 industrial units only 20, including eight textile mills, were running round the clock while the remaining were operating occasionally. The 340 industrial units had already been closed after the withdrawal of incentives.
The sources said location-disadvantage had forced many entrepreneurs to shift their machinery to more attractive industrial zones in the country. They said it was the responsibility of the previous governments to protect the Gadoon estate, "but the entrepreneurs of Karachi and Punjab had played a negative role".
The sources said that eight people were killed when law-enforcement agencies wanted to destroy poppy crop and people demanded provision of alternative sources of livelihood in 1986 and later gave up the poppy cultivation.
According to the agreement the government was bound to provide alternative sources of livelihood to them. With the closure of some chemical and paper-sack manufacturing units, said the sources, about 3,000 employees had been rendered jobless.
"Without some incentives the Gadoon estate would never survive. The industrialists who are still running their industries in Gadoon needed rebate facility in the electricity bills, because it is close to the Tarbela Dam," Fazal Amin, the president of Gadoon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.
Moreover, the entrepreneurs running their businesses in the GAIE said, the month-long shortage of gas supply had hit them hard, because in the absence of natural gas they rely on diesel, which cost them more.
