CHITRAL: The miners association has demanded drastic changes to the leasing rules for both metallic and non-metallic mines in Chitral district insisting the rules have proved detrimental to the development of mines and minerals.

Addressing a news conference here on Wednesday, association president Sartaj Ahmad Khan and other leaders said eight years ago, the government had introduced Chitral-specific rules for the leasing of mines and minerals dividing the area into 15 large blocks encompassing an area of 175 square kilometers each.

He said the formation of large-size blocks was meant to attract foreign and non-local investors for the development of the exploration and mining process by them to benefit the area and government.

Mr Sartaj claimed that the idea proved a total failure as not a single non-local investor turned up in the area during the period, while the large-block policy caused the total extermination of the local miners from the process.

He regretted that despite the repeated demand of the local miners, the government had yet to restore the old system of small block of 200 acres area to enable the prospective miners of the area on a small scale could be able to get leasing licence from the department.

Mr Sartaj opposed the reported issuance of exploration licences of large blocks to the non-locals for a period ranging from five to eight years by the department of mines and minerals and said it would further aggravate the situation and would decelerate the progress of mineral development.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2021