PESHAWAR: The mine owners and leaseholders have expressed concern over delay in enactment of proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mineral Development and Regulation Act 2016 and urged the government to remove all hurdles to the legislation to ensure their protection and strengthen local economy.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, Frontier Mines Owners Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, president Sherbandi Khan Marwat said that the provincial government has prepared the mineral development act in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, but the law department was creating hurdles in its way.

He said that if the proposed law was approved from the provincial assembly the government could increase its annual revenue from the existing Rs700 million to Rs3 billion from the mining sector.

Flanked by the association’s general secretary Abdul Jalil, and vice-president Abdul Rasheed and other mine owners, Mr Sherbandi said the mine owners were faced with a host of problems.

The provincial government, he said, had made commitment with the mine owners, but it didn’t take steps to decrease rent on mining machinery.

He said that the provision of licences for mine blast explosives and resolution of issues related to the department of forest were still awaited.

Mr Sherbandi said that the mineral development department was taking measures for bringing improvement in the rules and regulations, but some institutions and influential political figures were creating hurdles in this regard.

He said that the negative propaganda against mine owners had deprived the province of huge revenue and also rendered thousands of people jobless due to closure of many mines.

He claimed that genuine cases of mine owners were pending with the provincial mining department due to pressure of investigating institutions.

He said that projects worth billions of rupees in mining sector had been halted as forest department had started intervention in Hazara division, which led to closure of many mines.

He demanded of the chief minister to take notice of the prevailing issues in mining and mineral development sector and take steps for approval of the proposed KP Mineral Development Act from the provincial assembly.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016