PESHAWAR, April 29: The NWFP Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution asking the provincial government to move the federal government to ensure utilization of gas deposits found in the province for the benefit of people of southern districts of the province instead of supplying it through a pipeline to Punjab.

The treasury and the opposition benches showed a complete unanimity when Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan called for a vote on the question of suspending the relevant rules of business for converting a call-attention notice into a resolution seeking utilization of gas deposits found at Gurguray and Shakar Darra, near Karak and Kohat, respectively, for the benefit of people of the southern districts of the province.

The issue was raised by Anwar Kamal Khan, parliamentary leader of the PML-N, through a call-attention notice.

After a brief discussion by members from both sides in support of Mr Khan’s contention, the house voted in support of suspending the rules to let the call attention notice be converted into a resolution.

The resolution was later adopted unanimously by the members.

Tabling the resolution before the house, Mr Khan urged the provincial government that the federal government should be moved to set up a refinery at Gurguray or any other suitable place in the same area to ensure supply of gas to the southern districts of the province instead of diverting the facility to Punjab.

He said the natural resources of the area should, first of all, benefit the people of the area who were still without the facility of gas.

Mr Khan was supported by ANP’s parliamentary leader Bashir Ahmed Bilour and provincial minister for law and parliamentary affairs Malik Zafar Azam — who hails from district Karak.

They informed the house that members of the provincial assembly belonging to the southern districts had already submitted a joint resolution on the subject to the secretariat of the NWFP Assembly.

However, instead of waiting for the turn of their joint resolution, the MPAs decided to support the call-attention notice of Anwar Kamal Khan for its conversion into a resolution.

Law minister Malik Zafar Azam told the assembly that the setting up of a refinery at Gurguray was needed to avoid law and order situation in the area.

He said residents of Shakar Darra were already resisting the federal government’s proposed plan to transport gas from their area to Punjab.

The matter was also brought to the notice of Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali during his recent visit to the provincial capital, the minister added.

Supporting the idea of setting up a refinery at Gurguray or any other place close to the Gurguray and Shakar Darra fields, the minister said that the refinery would not only benefit the local community by providing job opportunities, it would also give a boost to economic activities in the area.

He said southern districts of the province had ample gas resources and the need for a refinery would be felt in future any way.

The house was informed that in response to the provincial government’s request, the prime minister had given an assurance that Rs100 million would be released for conducting a study to examine feasibility of the refinery project.

Earlier, ANP’s Bashir Bilour in his speech said gas deposits found in the NWFP should not be utilized for the benefit of Punjab.

“Our’s is a resource-rich province, but its people never benefited from the resources of their area,” said Mr Bilour while referring to the supply of hydel power generated by Tarbela Dam to Punjab.

According to official sources, initially some 35 million cubic feet (mcf) per day gas would be produced by a single well of the Gurguray field. The first well is expected to start production in the near future.

The producer — MOL, a Hungarian company — plans to dig four wells by 2005 to increase daily production to 150mcf per day.

The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, according to official sources, has planned to supply gas from the Gurguray field to its consumers in the northern region by diverting it to Fateh Jhang through reverse flow from Kohat.

A special transmission line would be laid from Gurguray to Kohat to supply gas for its onward transmission to the SNGPL’s northern region.