SWABI, Oct 27: The newly-elected members to the national and provincial assemblies from the Swabi district on Sunday declared their priorities, saying they would try to restore some of the incentives withdrawn from the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate.
The two MNAs and six MPAs said that they would put in efforts to save the sole industrial estate of the district from total collapse.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNA-elect Maulana Khalil Ahmad said that if the MMA took the highest executive post, it would be very easy for them to reclaim some of the incentives of the GAIE.
He said: “The main objective of Gadoon Estate was to provide alternative source of income to former poppy cultivators but the industrialists-cum-politicians did a lot of manoeuvring to withdraw incentives during the first Nawaz Sharif government. This led to the closure of about 400 units in the GAIE, rendering thousands jobless.”
The other MNA-elect of MMA, Mohammad Usman advocate said: “The Gadoon Estate was not given to the district as a gift. The Rs15 billion worth project, spread over 1,116 acres, was announced by prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo following a clash in 1986 between the law-enforcement agencies and the poppy growers that claimed eight lives. We would not accept any compromise on the Gadoon Estate.”
He said that all efforts would be made to reopen the sick units, which, on the one hand would provide jobs to the locals and on the other would increase Wapda’s revenue manifold.
The chairman of Swabi Qaumi Mahaz and MPA-elect Dr Mohammad Salim and MMA MPA-elect Abdul Majid Khan alleged that Awami National Party (ANP) was responsible for pushing the Gadoon Estate to the brink of collapse, because when the Nawaz Sharif government withdrew the incentives in May 1991, it was part of the coalition governments both in the centre and in NWFP. He said that he would support the MMA government in the province.
The MMA MPA-elect Maulana Fazal Ali Haqqani said that the GAIE defaulters should be brought to justice, because they had received huge loans in the name of Gadoon Estate, and then managed to flee.
In so doing, they devoured the public money and defamed the industrialists of GAIE, he added.
The ANP MPA-elect Aamir Rehman, who was also nominated as the parliamentary secretary of the party in the NWFP Assembly, and MPAs-elect Mukhtiar Ali and Sarfaraz Khan said that they would never compromise on the Gadoon Estate.