ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday grilled a counsel for Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) for his claims of ‘vested interests’ in award of mining lease for exploration of precious minerals resources in Reko Diq area of Balochistan.

Heading a three-judge bench over the issue of mining leases for gold and copper reserves in Reko Diq, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked Khalid Anwar, counsel for TCC, as how the Balochistan High Court (BHC) could say that the company had vested rights.

He observed that there could be no vested rights for any particular company, only those rights which were subjected to laws. “What matters for court is the laws,” he added.

He told the counsel that judgement of the licensing authority was not impugned before us.

Anwar contended that the BHC verdict was in his favour which had two vital components.

He said that the verdict did not hold anywhere that the mineral wealth of the province was wasted and pleaded that the court could not settle the questions of facts.

The counsel further said that the Balochistan chief minister could not have taken a decision over the issue by terming it as policy issue.

The CJ reminded him that the Chagi Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement (CHEJVA) was an agreement between the parties which was not statutory. He said the incumbent chief minister was not on the scene during 2006. The licensing authority did not mention anything in its order that it was provincial cabinet's decision, he added.

Replying to a query of Justice Shaukat Azmat Saeed, the counsel said that they had dispute with both federal and provincial governments.

He contended that all the allegations made about CHEJVA and relaxation of rules was directed against the BHP, its predecessor company, and not against the TCC.

He said the TCC was not in existence when relaxation of rules took place on January, 24, 1994.

The company was entitled for all the legal rights of innovation agreement of May 1, 2006 after the BHP entirely left the scene and had not further legal rights or obligations and the Balochistan government had independently conferred the legal duty and obligations to the TCC.

The chief justice supplemented him by saying that he wanted to establish that the TCC had an independent stance and had nothing to do with all this.

The counsel said, if it was his stance then why he was undertaking a long exercise of reading out volumes of papers for the last two weeks.

The counsel apprised the bench that total sales value of the venture was $56 billion and the operating cost was $25 billion. He said the initial investment stood around $3.3 billion whereas $2.7 billion were also required for maintenance of the mines, adding that $8 billion would go to the government of Pakistan in taxes.

Justice Saeed observed that the mineral wealth of a country belonged to that very country.

An official of provincial government stood up and claimed that the company had calculated shares amount itself without informing the officials concerned.