Forest owners threatento launch agitation

MANSEHRA/ SWAT: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Forest Owners Association on Thursday threatened to launch street agitation across the province if the ban imposed on the cutting of forests under scientific management was not lifted.

“Imposing a ban on cutting of trees even under scientific forest management is an injustice to them and we will challenge it in Peshawar High Court,” Salahuddin Khan, the president of the association, told a rally here. The participants of the rally marched outside the press club and later on held a press conference.

Flanked by dozens of owners and his body’s office-bearers from parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Salahuddin Khan said the Minister Climate Change, Forestry, Environment and Wildlife Department through a notification issued on June 24 this year had imposed a ban on all sorts of harvesting throughout the province.

“We don’t follow this notification and if the government doesn’t withdraw it, we would continue to cut trees under scientific forest management and sell it privately,” Khan said.Meanwhile, private forest owners in Swat also asked the government to end the ban on forest cutting. Speaking at a press conference here, Shamsur Rahman, Imran Malik, Malik Tawoos and others said that there was no justification for imposing a ban on private forests. They said that they were cutting the trees under the scientific management policy of the government to earn livelihood for their families.