User:Abdul hammeed khan/sandbox

How the pace of development is impeded can be gauged from the fact that once the industrial hub of the Frontier province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), the Frontier Sugar Mills and Distillery Limited at Takht Bai is now in a bad shape because of the step-motherly treatment meted out to it by those at the helm of affairs.

As the first industry in Asia, Frontier Sugar Mills played a vital role in Pakistan’s industrial development incredibly. It goes without saying that the Peshawar valley, particularly Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera and parts of the Peshawar district produce are known for the best-quality sugarcane.

It was in 1934 that Khanzada Ajab Khan from Gundal (Punjab) established the Frontier Sugar Mill on an area as large as 75 kanals of land. It later became to be known as the mother industry of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). THE PRODUCTION however started in 1937.

In the BEGINNING, only sugar production was started but later the mill also began to produce cattle fodder and some confectionary products.

More than 3,300 people from across the province worked at the mill to earn their living. After some time, the mill started processing sugar beet. Truckloads of sugarcane were brought to this sugar mill by goods trains and by carts from areas like Dargai, Takht Bai, Sakhakot, Hatyan, Swabi, Mardan and Nowshera.

In 1939, Khanzada Ajab Khan established a school for children of the labourers working at the mill. Ajab Memorial High School played a dynamic role in imparting EDUCATION to the children in the remote areas.

It was not until 1986 that Khanzada Taj Mohammad Khan, son of Khanzada Ajab Khan, sold this mill to Mir Afzal Khan, a noted industrialist and a former chief minister of the province. Already owner of Prime Sugar Mill at Mardan, Mir Afzal Khan started retrenchment at the mill, slashing the number of workforce to just 800.

Not just that, the new owner shut down the production units of cattle fodder and some other items and started supplying the sheera, which was produced at this mill, to Prime Sugar Mills. The beet plant was also CLOSED down and more retrenchment was made.

In 2007, as a result of the decisions by the new management, total production at the mills came to a grinding halt as this historic mill that used to pay millions of rupees in shape of Wealth Tax, INCOME TAX, EOBI, Social Security and Workers’ Welfare Fund (WWF) to the government downed its shutters in the face of worsening conditions.

The tools and equipment used at the mills like boilers, lime kilns and other materials were sold out. All that made farmers suffer at the hands of the mill owner. The farmers were left with no other option than to SET UP their own crashing plants for producing gur, which they began to export to Afghanistan and other countries in the east.

According to the 1969 Industrial Act, no one can use THE LAND specified for industry for any other purpose. Currently, Abbas Sarfraz, nephew of late Mir Afzal Khan, owns this mill.

Faqir Hussain Lala, a labour leader, while talking to this scribe strongly condemned the closure of the Frontier Sugar Mill, saying “that’s a clear violation of the 1969 Industrial Act and showed the provincial government’s weakness and inefficiency of the local ADMINISTRATION.” He said that the KP chief minister had promised to take some solid corrective measures but nothing has so far been done in this connection.

“According to 18th Amendment, this subject comes under the provincial government and now the provincial government is duty-bound TO PLAY its due role in this connection,” he remarked. He said the lawmakers from Mardan District should also take up this issue on the floor of the Provincial Assembly.

On the other side, Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Iftikhar Ali Mashwani, chairman, District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC) and district general secretary for PTI said that he had directed the district ADMINISTRATION to arrange a final meeting with officials of the mill’s administration to straighten the affairs and facilitate the reopening of this historic mill.