MARDAN: Awami National Party has rejected the proposed Mines and Minerals Bill, 2025 and vowed to strongly resist its passage from the provincial assembly.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, ANP Mardan president Imran Mandoori, general secretary Fazale Rehman Binyameen Khan, Mardan city mayor Himayatullah Mayar, and others said the proposed legislation was an attack on the sovereignty of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We will strongly resist if the bill is passed through the provincial assembly,” Mr Mandoori vowed.

He alleged the Special Investment Facilitation Council was not only comprised of unelected people it was also against the 1973 Constitution and the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

He said ANP was going to call a multiparty conference on May 15 on the issue of the minerals bill so as to build pressure on the federal and provincial governments to take back the proposed legislation.

Besides, he claimed ANP also planned to hold meetings in all tehsils of the district to mobilise workers for anti-government agitation if the proposed legislation was not withdrawn.

Speaking on the occasion, city mayor Himayatullah Mayar claimed he had written a letter to all the Mardan-based MPAs of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to apprise them of the ANP’s concerns about the proposed legislation.

“Framed as a pro-investment reform, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mines & Minerals Bill, 2025 hides within it some serious gaps and risks. If passed without amendments, the province could become a prime target for foreign exploitation just like Congo or Ukraine – with locals seeing almost no benefit,” Mr Mayar observed.

Drawing parallels with Congo, Ukraine, and Chile, he said how these resource-rich regions became zones of conflict, poverty, or corporate capture. Mr Mayar claimed there were no mandatory royalties for the province, no job quotas for its residents, no ownership stake for local communities in the said bill.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2025