PESHAWAR: The Frontier Mine Owners Association has warned to stage sit-ins outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly if the government went ahead to implement the proposed mines and mineral development policy.

The announcement was made by the mines owners at a news conference at the press club here on Friday.

The association’s president Sher Bandi Marwat said that the sit-in planned to be held on November 11 was aimed at protectingthe department of mines and minerals development from destruction.

He alleged corruption and irregularities at the mines department, and urged Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan to take notice of the malpractices.

Rejecting the proposed Mining and Mineral Policy, 2014 of the KP government, he warned that if implemented in its present shape, it would destroy mining sector, rendering thousands of labourers jobless.

“The proposed mines and mineral policy is meant to hand over the whole sector to infl uential people and deprive the lease holders of their due rights,” he claimed.

Mr Marwat said that during formation of the proposed law the mines owners were not taken into confi dence.

He said that the new policy was not acceptable to the mines owners at any cost and they would resist its implementation.

Mr Marwat informed that about 0.8million labourers were earning livelihood from the sector, but many of them had lost their jobs due to ban on excavation and blasting of mines in the province since 2007.

Mr Marwat warned that if the provincial government didn’t pay attention towards the mines owners’ woes, they would also observe sit-in outside the residence of Imran Khan in Bani Gala, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 25th , 2014