PESHAWAR: Forest owners have demanded payment of 80 per cent of royalty on timber sale to them in line with a resolution of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad president Riaz Ahmad told a news conference here on Tuesday that the provincial assembly had unanimously passed a resolution in November 2006 urging the government to adopt a uniform policy on payment of royalty on timber sale.
He said like others in the province, owners of Swat-Kohistan and Dir-Kohistan forests should get 80 per cent of royalty on timber sale.
Riaz said the government was bound by the Constitution to implement the assembly’s resolutions in letter and spirit and give equal share in royalty to forest owners in the province.
Say govt should implement assembly resolution on royalty payment
He said former MPAs Farid Khan and late Amir Zada had tabled the resolution and the house had passed it unanimously.
The SAFI president said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and former environment ministers had promised implementation of the resolution on many occasion but the promises turned out to be false.
He said right-holders had formed the organisation in 1997 to protect natural forests and the people’s rights in the province.
“Main objectives of our ittehad’s formation are to protect environment, ensure sustainable tree plantation and tree growing, create public awareness of forests, and safeguard the rights and needs of the people associated with forests,” he said.
Riaz said after the lapse of seven years, the assembly’s resolution had yet not been implemented to the misery of the people of Dir, Swat and Kohistan.
He said under Section 39 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Forest Ordinance, 2002, 80 per cent of the royalty on timber sale went to forest owners, while the rest was deposited in the Forest Development Fund of Hazara division.
The SAFI president said unfortunately, the government hadn’t implemented the royalty policy in Malakand division.
He said forest owners in Buner district, Indus Kohistan, Sultankhel and Paindakhel areas of Dir had been getting 80 per cent of royalty on timber sale but the policy had not been extended to the remaining areas of Malakand division.
“This is discrimination against the people of Swat-Kohistan and Dir-Kohistan and that the provincial government is promoting it,” he said.
Riaz said a summary was put up to the then provincial chief secretary in 2004 proposing increase in the share of forest owners in royalty in light of the backwardness of Kohistan.
He said cooperation of forest owners was inevitable for strengthening joint forest management in the province and that the government could ensure sustainable protection of natural forests only through the implementation of the unanimously passed resolution of the assembly.
The SAFI president appealed to the chief minister to order early action on the demand.
Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014