PESHAWAR: The Frontier Mine Owners Association (FMOA) has said that though Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has representation of all the segments of society, there are some elements within the party earning a bad name to it.
During a joint news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, the representatives of FMOA and a group of Chinese investors said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was not investors-friendly, but rather it is creating hurdles in their work.“We aren’t getting mining licences for the last four months, while the stipulated time for issuing the licence is two months,” stated one of the speakers, adding that Minister for Mineral Development Ziaullah Afridi, erstwhile chief minister’s adviser for the same ministry, was responsible for that.
They claimed that they had communicated their reservations to the party chief, Imran Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and other high-ups of the government, but to no avail.FMOA provincial president Sher Bandi Khan Marwat said the provincial Mines and Mineral Department is under the influence of political forces and the officials of the department have been turned into rubber-stamps.
During a joint news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, the representatives of FMOA and a group of Chinese investors said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was not investors-friendly, but rather it is creating hurdles in their work.“We aren’t getting mining licences for the last four months, while the stipulated time for issuing the licence is two months,” stated one of the speakers, adding that Minister for Mineral Development Ziaullah Afridi, erstwhile chief minister’s adviser for the same ministry, was responsible for that.
They claimed that they had communicated their reservations to the party chief, Imran Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and other high-ups of the government, but to no avail.FMOA provincial president Sher Bandi Khan Marwat said the provincial Mines and Mineral Department is under the influence of political forces and the officials of the department have been turned into rubber-stamps.
He requested the PTI high-ups to emancipate the Mines and Minerals Department from the clutches of vested political interests and let the officials of the department perform their duties as per rules and regulations. “The vested political interests should stop blackmailing mine owners and revisit their decision of cancellation of granted leases,” he concluded.
