HYDERABAD: Owners of mines in Lakhra coalfield have urged the Punjab and federal governments not to close brick kilns for two months between October to December for controlling smog as the closure would cause colossal monetary losses to them (mine owners) and kiln workers.

Addressing a joint press conference here at a local hotel on Tuesday, Mine Owners Coal Management Committee chairman Abdul Samad Raisani, vice chairman Pir Bux Rajar, patron Shakeel Ahmed Khan and a mine owner, Zareef Khan, said the Punjab’s environment department had issued notices to kilns’ owners to keep them closed from Oct 14 to Dec 14 to avoid increasing threat of smog in Punjab.

Mr Raisani said that if this action was given effect, it would mean closure of coal mines where 10,000-15,000 tonnes of coal in Lakhra coal field was extracted on a daily basis. He said that coal could not be stored for more than three days. Lakhra is the biggest coal field of Pakistan and coal extracted from there was used in brick kilns of Punjab, he added.

The coal mine owner said coal mining was a dangerous job in the world and many workers lost their life during work. He said that recently in Quetta, three major incidents were reported in which 50 coal mine workers had died and last week several workers were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018