"Karak Deserves Better: Khattaks Urge Government Action"

The residents of the oil and gas and other minerals rich district Karak are deploring the step-motherly treatment accorded to their district by the PTI government in the province during the period of over last twelve years

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Aug, 2025) The residents of the oil and gas and other minerals rich district Karak are deploring the step-motherly treatment accorded to their district by the PTI government in the province during the period of over last twelve years.

According to Khanzada Javid Iqbal Khattak, a renowned businessman and social worker the last mega project completed in the district Karak was Indus Highway in early 1990s that played the role of catalyst in the progress and development of area and since then not a single uplift project was initiated in the district and to bring improvement in the socioeconomic conditions of its residents.

Despite being a major oil and gas producing district, Karak has seen little in the way of large scale initiatives that could genuinely benefit its residents.

Like other parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, this backward district is also constantly electing the representatives of PTI for both National and provincial assemblies, but they have done nothing for the development and wasting their energies on staging protests and petty matters like lower-level public sector employment and installation of water pumps instead of concentrating on large and long term oriented development projects for their native district.

One of the crucial but withheld and delayed project, he said is the establishment of the Karak Gypsum and Salt City aimed at better utilization of the mineral resources to set up local indigenous industries in the area.

The project was the brain-child of another Javed Iqbal Khattak, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KP-EZDMC) a resident of the same district. Late renowned personalities Aslam Khattak, a former Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Professor Preshan Khattak were also the natives of Karak.

The project approved by KP-EZDMC two years ago aimed to process the locally produced minerals such as gypsum and salt to value-added projects rather than exporting them in raw shape.

The initiative would increase the market value of these products, strengthen the local economy, reduce unemployment, and provide honourable livelihoods for the youth steering them away from drugs and tribal conflicts.

Site for the project was in the Karapa locality of Tehsil Banda Daud Shah. 289 acres of land was identified, with a value of PKR 388 million under Section 4. Out of this, PKR 200 million was transferred to the Deputy Commissioner Karak’s account by KP-EZDMC and the remaining PKR 188 million still pending.

The project has been delayed due to a requirement from the Commissioner of Kohat Division, who has made the acquisition of No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from three departments Agriculture, Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency mandatory under Sections 6 and 7, before the land handover can proceed.

KP-EZDMC maintains that the land should be officially allotted first, and then the NOCs should be pursued. Without the allotment, they argue, it is impractical to spend on consultancy for obtaining NOCs.

Therefore, it is essential that the same SOPs applied to other industrial zones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa be used as a benchmark for the Karak Gypsum & Salt City project as well. This would help eliminate unnecessary delays and expedite the project's implementation.

There is now a pressing need for the Commissioner of Kohat to waive Sections 6 and 7 from the NOC requirement at this stage, and instead make the acquisition of NOCs mandatory only after the land purchase process is complete. This would prevent unnecessary cost escalation due to delays in this multi-faceted project.

Zafar Rehman Khattak, Vice President All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran is also critical of the treatment met out to Karak by the provincial government. He said that the PML-N maestro Mohammad Nawaz Sharif has constructed the Indus Highway that brought revolution in the lives of residents of Karak.

APP/aqk