Chitral leaseholders want ban on mining along Afghan border lifted

Bashir Hussain Azad

CHITRAL: The office-bearers of Chitral Mines snd Mineral Association has demanded that the condition of NOC for mining in areas along the Afghan border should be abolished.

Speaking at a press conference, association’s patron-in-chief Liaquat Ali and office-bearers Bashir Ahmed Khan, Ashfaq Ali Khan, Naeem Uddin, Muhammad Rafi and legal adviser Burhan Shah advocate appealed to the corps commander Peshawar to immediately abolish the NOC condition.

They said that the condition of security NOC for mining in Ursun and other border areas of Chitral was not justified at all. They said Chitral is a peaceful area and there had been no issue of security in Chitral even during the 40-year-long war in the neighboring Afghanistan.

At the moment, mining activities continue in areas of Afghanistan located on the border with Chitral where Chinese firms have invested billions of dollars and supervising the explorations, they said.

On the other hand, in the name of security, the licences (EL 4) for explosives used in mining were not being renewed on Chitral side in the name of security. 

They said that due to the stoppage of mining activities, unemployment in these areas has increased dangerously because a large number of people in these backward areas were directly or indirectly engaged in the sector.

The leaseholders also said that never in the past there had been any case of smuggling of explosives allocated to miners of Chitral to Afghanistan or any other area. However, the quarters concerned under the pretext of security have imposed a ban on mining in the border areas and fixed a daily quota of explosives instead of per week.

They also pointed out that except Chitral the condition of working NOC had not been imposed in other district of Khyber Pakthunkhwa. 

They said that mining licences had been issued for 183 places in Chitral but at present work was ongoing only at 12 sites.

The unnecessary and unjustified security-related NOC condition is taking its heavy toll on the leaseholders who have to pay wages to their laborers and rent for the hired machinery, they complained.

The leaseholders appealed to the district administration and military authorities to lift the ban on mining, abolish the condition of the working NOC and restore the old system to issue explosives to the miners by keeping the ground realties in Chitral.

It may be mentioned here that earlier elders from Ursun at a presser had also called for initiation of mining activities in their area.