SWABI, Aug 31: Entrepreneurs of the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate and officials of the Sarhad Development Authority (SDA) expect the US government to provide incentives to the industrial estate under the Reconstruction Opportunity Zone programme, according to sources.

US senators B. Donovan Picard and Milt Bearden visited the Gadoon estate four days ago. SDA chairman Mukaram Khan, general manager (planning) Abdul Hameed Awan and project manager Mohammad Iqbal Khan accompanied them.

About six month ago, two other Americans had also visited the industrial estate and met industrialists and officials of the SDA.

Sources said the purpose of the US senators’ visit was to discuss the possibility of reviving some units in the Gadoon estate under the ROZ programme.

They said Washington was expected to pass a legislation allowing the Gadoon estate to export certain goods to the US duty-free, adding that the two governments had discussed the legislation likely be tabled in the US Congress soon.

Talking to Dawn on Friday, Mohammad Iqbal said that in May 1991 the government of Nawaz Sharif had withdrawn incentives offered to the Gadoon estate under pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the US because such incentives had not been given to other industrial estates, and Punjab industrialists because it was a threat to industrial domination of the province.

Answering a question, he said: “I hope they (US senators) will take some meaningful steps, and that’s the reason they visited the Gadoon estate.”

He said the US senators had been told that after the withdrawal of incentives, 137 industrial units had been closed down in the Gadoon estate.

The Rs10 billion project, covering an area of 1,116 acres, had been launched to stop poppy growing in the Swabi district. The need for the industrial estate was felt when eight poppy growers were killed during an operation by law-enforcement agencies against poppy cultivation in the mountainous belt of Gadoon Amazai in 1986.

Mohammad Iqbal said Gadoon industrialists sought 50 per cent rebate on electricity bills, withdrawal of tax on raw materials and reduction of income tax.

Meanwhile, the sources said the shifting of machinery from the Gadoon estate was continuing.

According to industrialists, the machinery is lying useless in the Gadoon estate and that is why they want to shift it to some attractive industrial zone.

Since the withdrawal of incentives, the district administration has been on different occasions banning the shifting of the machinery from the estate. However, the sources said industrialists had been shifting the machinery after bribing officials concerned.