PESHAWAR: Frontier Mine Owners Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday said an executive order had brought the entire mineral sector to a halt, leaving millions of people unemployed.
Speaking at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club along with other office-bearers , association President Uzair Tanoli said the government should review the prolonged suspension of explosives, unnecessary hurdles in the issuance of licences, interference by the administration and other administrative difficulties that had pushed the mineral sector into a severe crisis.
He announced that a peace march towards Peshawar would be held on September 15 with machinery and trucks loaded with minerals to mark the launch of the Mineral Bachao Tehreek.Uzair Tanoli said the association was launching the Mineral Bachao Tehreek against what he termed injustices being committed against the mining sector by the government.
He said the movement would be completely non-political and would focus on the injustices faced by mine owners.The association chief said thousands of acres had been declared Guzara Forest by the Forest Department without legal proceedings, proper notices or a transparent procedure, affecting mineral leases and pending applications. He said hundreds of applications had already been rejected on this basis.
He said that when the ban on explosives was imposed, green mining and other mining activities being legally carried out without the use of explosives should have been clearly exempted from the restriction.
However, he said district administrations in some districts were pressuring mine owners to close even those mines where explosives were not being used.Uzair Tanoli demanded that the ban on the purchase, sale, use and transportation of explosives be immediately lifted under workable standard operating procedures.
He also asked the government to immediately reverse the declaration of areas as Guzara Forest where the Forest Department had made such declarations without completing the required legal proceedings.
Uzair Tanoli said people associated with the mineral sector would approach every constitutional and legal forum to protect their legal businesses, employment, investments, export agreements and constitutional rights.
