PESHAWAR, May 16: Peshawar’s businessmen want the upcoming Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to focus its attention on improving law and order situation and overcoming militancy in the province without which, according to them, the investors’ confidence will be difficult to restore.
Local business leaders, when contacted, said several of Peshawar’s businessmen, who shifted their businesses to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other commercial centres of the country due to insecurity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, could return if the new government managed to improve security and general law and order situation in the province.
“Deteriorated law and order is a big issue, the new provincial government should resolve it on priority basis,” said Sharafat Ali Mubarak, the president of Anjuman-i-Tajraan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa economy would show signs of recovery with improvement in security and that there was a need to restore local investors’ confidence, bringing them back to the province.
“Investment will return to Peshawar and a good number of local investors, who have shifted to relatively peaceful areas in the country, would also get back to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa given that the law and order is improved here,” said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, director of Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Several of Peshawar’s leading industrialists and traders scaled down their businesses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and shifted investments to Punjab and Sindh due to insecurity and increase in kidnapping for ransom instances in Peshawar in 2009 and 2010.In a few instances, Peshawar’s businessmen, who originally belonged to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), also felt threatened and diverted investment money to Lahore.
“Even some of our friends (businessmen) are still missing after having been abducted quite a while ago,” said Mr Sarhadi, adding that improved law and order could also attract back to Peshawar some big Afghan investors, who shifted from here fearing for their life amid growing threats from gangs of kidnappers.
He said some leading businessmen had been living in Islamabad supervising their businesses in Peshawar from there.
“The change in government with the introduction of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has given a hope to Peshawar businessmen,” said Mr Sarhadi, adding that many businessmen were looking towards PTI to deliver on its promises to restore peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.
The businessmen said law and order was a provincial subject and PTI in league with Jamaat-i-Islami stood a better chance to tame down the elements responsible for growing insecurity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
They said cost of doing business in Peshawar had recorded increase during the past couple of years. “They have to incur an additional cost, i.e. on personal security,” Nauman Wazir, a leading steal manufacturer from Peshawar, told Dawn.
Mr Sarhadi said the previous provincial government also did their best to restore peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but their efforts fell short of yielding the desired results.
“The new government should learn from the previous government’s mistakes and adopt a different approach to tackle the menace of militancy and kidnapping for ransom in the province,” he said.