PESHAWAR: The Frontier Mine Owners Association has urged the officials of relevant departments to resolve the mining sector’s genuine problems instead of making the provincial minerals department a target of political criticism.

They said that allegations against the department had created uncertainty among investors.

Speaking at a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, the association’s president Uzair Khan Tanoli and chairman Sherbandi Khan Marwat said restrictions on explosives’ supply over the past three months had rendered around 4,000 mining projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inoperative, leaving nearly 300,000 mineworkers unemployed.

They said the restrictions also disrupted the operations of around 2,000 mineral processing units and hundreds of transport vehicles.

Mr Tanoli said the minerals department had been subjected to politically motivated criticism for several years and had faced hundreds of inquiries and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases over the past two decades. However, he claimed, the cases against the department had eventually proved unfounded, while the mining community continued to suffer the consequences of the resulting uncertainty.

He said the purpose of raising unsubstantiated allegations was to divert attention from the fundamental problems confronting the mineral sector.

“Like other government departments, the minerals department may have shortcomings, and transparent accountability based on concrete evidence is essential. We support such accountability,” he said.

Mr Tanoli clarified that the association had no affiliation with any political party. He said misleading propaganda and allegations had made investors apprehensive at a time when the sector was facing serious challenges.

He attributed many of these problems to federal government policies and decisions and urged Governor Faisal Karim Kundi to intervene and help resolve them on a priority basis, particularly as relations between the provincial and federal governments had improved.

The association’s leaders said the prolonged restrictions on explosives were causing severe economic and social losses. They also identified problems relating to forests, obstacles to foreign investment and the failure to grant industry status to the mining sector as major impediments to its development.

Mr Tanoli said illegal mining remained a serious challenge for the provincial government. He claimed that the minerals department had sent thousands of written complaints to various police stations regarding illegal mining activities.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2026