Fading crushing industry leaves thousands jobless in KP’s tribal districts

PESHAWAR: Although the merger of the former Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) was aimed at uplifting some of the country’s most impoverished areas, the extension of Pakistan’s regular laws and regulations came with a set of new problems.

One example of them affecting the livelihoods of the locals directly is the state of a fading crushing industry. Once a booming business, crushing finds itself facing a precipitous decline after the merger.

Stringent regulations

Researcher Sulaiman Yousafzai, affiliated with the National Influencers organisation, which champions the cause of small and medium-sized businesses, holds the absence of registration mechanisms and tedious documentation procedures stemming from the erstwhile Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) as a chief factor behind the decline.

“Previously, doing business was relatively straightforward. However, post-merger, all provincial business-related departments began functioning in the tribal districts,” he told HUM News.

The enforcement of stringent business registration and other regulatory measures has resulted in the closure of over 150 crushing plants in the Khyber district alone.

Yousafzai says establishing a crushing plant now entails an overly complicated process of approvals, including those from the Department of Mines and Minerals and the Environment Protection Agency.

“Add to that the compliance with environmental standards, which is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, and you have an outlook of why the crushing industry went down in the tribal districts.”

Read more: KP’s grim code of conduct bans nighttime political activities

Spokesperson for the District Crushing Association, Yunus Khan, attributes the unemployment of more than 8,000 direct and indirect workers to the shutdown.

Legal issues

Officials like Deputy Director of KP’s Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Habib, affirm the indispensability of No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for crushing plant setups.

“The issuance of NOCs has been temporarily halted due to a Supreme Court ruling, but the process is expected to resume soon,” he told HUM News. But he maintains that “NOCs are granted upon meeting specific environmental protection criteria, urging adherence to proper procedures.”

On the other hand, despite minor changes, the pre-existing method for registration and departmental engagement remains intact. NOCs, previously sought from the Deputy Commissioner through a simple application, now involve an online process for enhanced accessibility.

Experts like Yousufzai also believe that the demands of business owners for a tax exemption period, were crucial for the businesses to survive. “They seek a conducive business environment devoid of undue tax burdens,” according to him.

Local demands

Local crushing plant operators agree with that. The grievances also include issues pertaining to the tax policy which, despite government assurances of tax exemptions post-merger, remain unchanged.

They collectively call for the government to honour its pre-merger commitments, providing streamlined pathways for business registration and NOCs.

As an important social factor, local operators advocate for designated sites away from populated areas, equipped with facilities for plant relocation, raw material transportation, and other necessary infrastructure to ensure responsible and efficient operations.