SWABI, Oct 20: Opposition members in the district council have accused the local government of allowing the shifting of machinery from the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate, which, they say, will lead to the collapse of the estate.

Opposition leader Muqarab Khan, who was accompanied by leaders of the Swabi Independent Group, told journalists on Tuesday that the incumbent nazim Jehanzeb Khan had criticized the shifting of the machinery from the estate when he was the opposition leader. But, he said now the district government was permitting industrialists to shift whatever machinery was left in the industrial estate.

The district government would be responsible for the total collapse of the industrial estate, he said, adding that the district naib nazim, who remained the president of Gadoon Chamber of Commerce and Industry and chairman of the standing committee for GAIE in the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was well aware of the situation.

Since the withdrawal of incentives in May 1991, the district administration had imposed Section 144 and did not allow shifting of the machinery from the Gadoon area.

Presently, they said, only 25 out of 450 industrial units were working while the remaining units had already closed down, rejecting the district government's claim that about 45 industrial units were operating in the industrial area.