PESHAWAR: Despite a lapse of eight years, Fata Development Authority is unable to establish small industrial zone in the Frontier Region Darra Adamkhel to regularise manufacturing of illegal arms and ammunition in the tribal area.

“The establishment of industrial zone in Darra is still a far dream as the progress on the project is zero despite extensive paperwork and wastage of resources,” said an official, who admitted that prospects of the project were dim, because of “red-tapism.”

The government had approved the plan to establish a small industrial zone along the Indus Highway in Darra Town, one of the largest hubs of illicit firearms trade in the region. The town is also famous for manufacturing of vintage guns, which are also exported to America and Europe.

Roughly 10,000 to 15,000 pistols, revolvers, shotguns and other prohibited pieces with ammunition were manufactured in the town annually, sources said.

Market sources said that export quality 9mm pistols (PK-09, PK-111 and PK-01) were designed in Darra through outdated tools, while buyers from America and Europe were interested to import the handmade arms from Darra.

Official admits project’s prospects are dim, despite extensive paperwork and wastage of resources

“Presently all these items are smuggled out of the region because there is no legal mechanism to regularize manufacturing and transportation of arms,” said the official. He added that arms of non-prohibited and prohibited bore, produced in Peshawar, were exported to different countries. The sector was flourishing owing to availability of cheap manpower, he said.

“Rs179 million export order is in the pipeline,” the official said, adding that the cluster in Darra had the potential to introduce its products abroad if latest facilities like computerised numeric controlled machines were provided to the local manufacturers.

Tahir Nawaz Khattak, the chief executive officer of Pakistan Hunting and Sporting Arms Development Company (PHSADC), said that many local investors had shifted their investment to Peshawar because laws for regularising manufacturing and transportation of arms from the tribal area did not exist. He said that smuggling of non-prohibited weapons, manufactured in Darra, would immediately come down to 30 per cent if the sector was regularised in Fata.

Market sources said that Peshawar and Darra could become major clusters of arms manufacturing in the region and the business could thrive further if government encouraged investors. They said that provincial home department had issued 400 manufacturing licences in Peshawar about two years ago that showed great potential.

Officials in FDA said that around 40,000 skilled workers were employed in about 10,000 arms manufacturing units in Darra and Peshawar.

“The purpose of establishing industrial zone in Darra is to regularise the arms manufacturing units and transportation of non-prohibited bore weapons from the tribal area to down parts of the country and aboard,” said an official in FDA.

FDA, the so-called specialised development agency, was formally tasked in 2006 to establish the zone at an appropriate site in Darra and provide required facilities, including testing and training facilities, to the local manufacturers.

FDA’s responsibility is to acquire land, mobilise resources and set up common facility and training centre in Darra while Civil Secretariat Fata would extend relevant laws to the area. However, so far, neither the site has been identified nor relevant laws have been extended to the area.

A senior officer told Dawn that law and order department had done its job and sent summary to Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan to extend Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Arms Act, 2013 and provincial arms policy, 2012 to Fata.

“The summary has been referred to the governor which will be onward referred to the President for extending the law to the tribal area,” said the official, adding that previously several laws related with arms and ammunition including Arms Act, 1878 and Explosive Act, 1884 had been extended to the tribal area.

The management of FDA, the regulatory regime, seems to be still sleeping over the pile of the files. Several sites were identified and PC-I was approved few years ago, but the plan has not materialised so far.

The authority had carried out feasibility study for the project in 2013 through a private firm and Rs4 million was paid to the company as consultancy fee. It again went back to square one. Feasibility study has been scrapped.

An official admitted that despite extensive file work no progress had been made so far. “Extension of the relevant law to the tribal area and acquisition of land are main components, but there is no progress on both parts,” he said.

The official said that around 400 kanals of land was required for the industrial zone inside Darra Adamkhel, about 35 kilometres south of Peshawar. He said that a piece of 328 kanals was identified near Degree College Darra, but later on Civil Secretariat Fata directed to allocate the proposed site for establishing Fata University’s campus. Like industrial zone the future of the Fata University also hangs in the balance.

Local investors had suggested declaring the entire Darra Town as industrial zone rather than establishing small facility in the area. FDA supports local investors’ proposal. Sources said that summaries of FDA, PHSADC and civil secretariat regarding establishment of industrial zone in the tribal area were awaiting governor’s recommendation.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2015

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