OWING to the controversy of awarding the Reko Diq mining contract to a foreign firm, it is reported that Ecnec has allocated the project to the government of Balochistan for resolving the issue.No doubt, the provinces should get their due share of revenue (royalty, development surcharge, etc.). However, such large projects should be conceived as national projects.

Historically speaking, the Saindak copper/gold project, which is similar to the Reko Diq project, could not achieve its full potential because the government of Balochistan was reluctant about giving the details about the downstream industry of copper smelting, phosphatic fertiliser and iron at Saindak. This area being remote, no downstream industry was economically feasible due to lack of infrastructure, water, technical expertise, manpower and transportation cost of raw material for a phosphatic fertiliser plant.

I, therefore, request the chief minister of Balochistan not to repeat the mistake and be pragmatic. If Ecnec has taken the decision to hand over the project to the government of Balochistan in the national interest, the same spirit should be reciprocated and the Reko Diq project should be developed as a national project.

If downstream industry is economically viable to be located in Sindh or Punjab, then it should be suitably sited as a joint venture between all stakeholders and the private sector, otherwise the whole project may hit snags due to poor economic viability. Balochistan should get its due share of royalty from the mining operations which obviously should be established at Reko Diq.

MAHAM QASIMLahore