PESHAWAR, Dec 22: Terrified by growing lawlessness and incidents of kidnappings for ransom, businessmen have called upon the government to declare the NWFP as a war-affected province and take measures to protect their lives and properties.

“In a province where 11 to 12 people are kidnapped daily, the government should not expect anybody to invest here; rather, businessmen are now fleeing the area,” Sharafat Ali Mubarik, president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said at a press conference here on Monday.

He said lack of fresh investments, non-revival of sick industrial units and poor infrastructure had been the stumbling block for industrial development in the province, but now kidnapping for ransom had become a major threat to the business community.

Mohammad Ishaq, vice-president of the SCCI, said that during the last 26 hours eight people, mostly businessmen, had been kidnapped in different parts of Peshawar, which spoke volumes for inefficiency of law-enforcement agencies.

He said 240 people had been kidnapped in different parts of the province during 11 months and the ransom paid involved amount from Rs25,000 to Rs20 million.

“The government’s writ doesn’t seem to exist anywhere,” he said, adding: “Right from the station house officer to the provincial police officer nobody in the police department is accessible to hear the kidnapping cases.”

Of the total 3,144 industrial units in the province, he claimed, 2,795 had been closed, causing a drop in industrial labour force from 75,000 to 52,000 mainly because of the current spate of lawlessness coupled with energy crisis.

He called upon the provincial government to immediately form a citizen-police liaison committee, like the one in Karachi, to counter growing incidents of kidnapping and robbery.

He also demanded that a DIG level police officer and an assistant political agent (in case of a tribal region) should be deputed to liaison with the business community in the kidnapping cases.