Forest dept scraps interim govt’s orders to open Hazara’s Guzara forests

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Forest Department has revoked all orders issued during the caretaker government to open Guzara forests (protected wastelands) in Hazara Division for commercial purposes, including tree cutting, mining, and real estate development.

The forests span nearly 550,000 acres, including the 23,000-acre Makhniyal forest in Haripur near Islamabad, which forms part of the Margalla Hills ecosystem.

Sources told HUM News English that KP Forest Secretary Shahid Zaman, who also revoked 31 no-objection certificates (NOCs) earlier issued for mining in forest areas, issued the cancellation orders.

KP Climate Change, Forest and Environment Department officials confirmed that part of a tourism project in Ayubia has been scrapped, while action has been launched against projects set up inside Makhniyal’s Guzara forests. They said work has begun on a master plan for Makhniyal, with the provincial government instructing that maximum tree cover must be ensured.

Sources said that the KP Forestry and Wildlife Department has recommended declaring thousands of acres in Haripur’s Khanpur and Makhnial subdivisions as Guzara forests.

Officials said the proposal follows a detailed mapping exercise by departmental committees, which identified 7,060 khasras across 78 villages — 66 in Haripur and 12 in Abbottabad — containing significant tree cover within working plan boundaries. The plan covers 1,602 acres of wasteland outside existing working plans and 336 acres of resumed land within Guzara compartments, verified through GIS mapping and field surveys.

Major sites include Khanpur, Makhnial, and forested slopes that form part of the Margalla Hills ecosystem, which conservationists say face mounting threats from encroachment and commercial activity.

Extensive deforestation uncovered in Hazara, Malakand divisions

According to officials, the caretaker government had allowed the commercial opening of Guzara forests on the orders of the then Forest Secretary Syed Nazar Hussain Shah, who had directed the Hazara chief conservator to issue approvals.

According to sources, subsequent inquiries into 370 cases of illegal logging in Hazara confirmed irregularities in 111 cases. They said that forest officers allegedly involved in these violations will soon face show-cause notices.

The move, however, has sparked controversy. Nazar Hussain Shah, now serving as KP’s Social Welfare Secretary, has written to the chief secretary accusing Shahid Zaman of targeting a private company linked to the brother of a senior Islamabad-based bureaucrat. In his letter, he claimed that action against tourism projects stemmed from a personal rivalry between the two officers.

He further alleged that cancelling a tourism project in Ayubia caused the provincial government a financial loss of Rs384 million.

Timber worth Rs1.22bn at risk of decay due to KP govt’s negligence

He argued that the private company in Makhniyal Valley had legally purchased land through registered documents, secured NOCs from TMA Haripur and the Galiyat Development Authority, and completed its project in July 2021.

He maintained that the land was not protected wasteland — a point confirmed, he said, during a KP cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister on March 17, 2025. That meeting, according to him, also clarified that no protected wastelands or Guzara forests existed in Makhniyal, and that allegations were aimed at maligning the company’s CEO and his bureaucrat brother.

Nazar Hussain Shah’s letter also noted that timber worth billions of rupees from Chitral’s Arandu forest, near the Pak-Afghan border, had yet to be shifted to depots, causing losses to both the government and the environment.

He defended his tenure, saying that under the Forest Ordinance 2002, the department had permitted cutting of dry, diseased, and old trees as part of a scientific forest management policy — a practice followed internationally to sustain forest health and support the provincial economy.

He added that in 2024–25, no auctions were held at major depots in Goharabad, Chakdara, and Dargai, even as local markets were flooded with smuggled timber, raising questions over the department’s alleged collusion with the so-called timber mafia.

Meanwhile, officials said that Forest Secretary Shahid Zaman has prioritised forest protection and master planning to ensure the long-term sustainability of fragile ecosystems such as Makhniyal and Ayubia.

On July 25, 2025, the federal government issued transfer orders for Shahid Zaman, directing him to report to the Establishment Division in Islamabad. However, the KP government has refused to relieve him, citing his performance and instructing him to continue in office.