KOHAT, April 19: The Khattak Ittehad and elected representatives of the Karak district on Wednesday unanimously decided to observe a strike and stop work on Gurguri, Makori and Sam oil and gas fields operated by the Hungary-based MOL company on Thursday to protest against delay in providing natural gas to the area.
This was announced by Khattak Ittehad president Malik Hidayatullah in presence of elected representatives of the area. The decision was endorsed by MPA Mian Nisar Gul, district nazim Rehmat Salam Khattak, UC nazims and the business community.
They criticised the NWFP chief minister and the federal petroleum minister for their alleged failure to keep promises made to the area people.
On Monday, they stopped work on the under-construction gas pipeline to Dera Ismail Khan from Karak to put pressure on the Oil and Gas Development Corporation and the government accept of their demands. They had given the government a three-day deadline to fulfil the promises and warned to stage a march to the exploration site to stop work.
The petroleum minister during a meeting with a representative jirga in Islamabad in January 2005 had assured that work on provision of natural gas to Karak would start soon. He had also promised a job quota for to be allotted to locals by foreign companies working in oilfields.
The decision to give the strike call was made after talks between elders and the local administration broke down on Wednesday as elders described further negotiations as useless.
In October 2004, the Khattak Ittehad supported by a small group of Taliban had attacked the Gurguri oil and gas fields forcing the work to remain stalled for a fortnight. The chief manager of MOL saved his life by hiding in a container. He was later escorted to Kohat by a joint contingent of the Frontier Constabulary and police.
MOL found one trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in Gurguri area known as Manzali-1 and it pumps 300 barrels from there daily. In Makori area of the Thall block, huge reserves of oil have been found and more than 4,500 barrels are sent to Attock refinery daily. In the SAM area known as Manzali-2, the company has completed the digging and commercial supply will start from the site shortly.
ARMS SMUGGLING: Personnel of a law-enforcement agency foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs and automatic weapons from tribal areas to Punjab and arrested three people, including a woman, near Karak district on Wednesday.
The personnel of the Anti-Narcotics Force seized 59 kilogrammes of hashish, 10kgs of opium, one 12-bore repeater, two assault rifles and 140 cartridges of different calibres from a car.
They detained Abid, Shehzad and Ms Uzma, all from Rahimyar Khan, and also impounded the car.