KOHAT: A committee of elders of Darmalak area of Lachi tehsil here on Sunday forcibly stopped work on the three oil wells in the area in protest against the failure of the district administration and a foreign exploration company to honour their commitment of providing uninterrupted gas and power supply to the region.

The elders had also boycotted the polio campaign against the unmet demands last week. However, they had ended the boycott on assurances that their demands would be met.

President of the committee Mufti Roohul Amin, general secretary Maulana Fayyaz and others flayed the district administration and other stakeholders for ‘cheating’ them time and again. They also criticised the former lawmakers from the district for being ‘hand in glove’ with the oil companies to ‘benefit’ only their voters.

The committee members vowed not to allow transportation of oil to other parts of the country and gas supply across the district till their demands for restoration of gas supply, provision of clean drinking water, rehabilitation of roads and uninterrupted electricity supply were not met.

They regretted that the oil companies had been earning billions of rupees annually since the first discovery of oil and gas was made in Lachi in 2005 and the Thal block in 2003, but they had neither provided jobs to locals nor launched any mega project in Darmalak.

They claimed the oil and gas royalty funds amounting to millions of rupees were lying in the account of the deputy commissioner unutilised, which could have been used for uplift of the area.

The committee members made it clear that this time they could not be fooled by unfulfilled promises being made with them for last 18 years.

They regretted that additional deputy commissioner Shehryar Qamar and assistant commissioner, Lachi, Maleeha Sahar had promised resumption of gas supply to the area with full pressure, provision of clean water and bringing down duration of excessive power cuts, but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2023