Sher Bandi Khan Marwat, President Frontier Mine Owners Association (FMOA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has termed the existing mining policy deteriorating for the sector and called for its immediate withdrawal, saying the ratio of mine lease has immensely declined following introduction of the policy.
Speaking at a news conference, here on Saturday, he said that all kind of mining fees have increased manifold following the imposition of the so-called policy by the department of mining, Khyber Pakhtunkwa.
Flanked by Jalil Khan, he informed that the lease ratio has rapidly shrunk in the province because of the policy. He recalled that the same rate had indicated 7,000 per annum along-with creation of jobs' opportunities for more than 70,000 people under the old policy and rules 2005 in the province. Under the policy, leaseholders are bounded to discover mining areas by spending millions of rupees and then hand-over it to the provincial mining department, he added.
FMOA President further said that there were hardly 100 leases since the introduction of the mining policy. He explained that about 50 percent leaseholders have shifted to other parts of the country due to insecurity of their investment. He accused that the policy had been devised under guidance of corrupt officials, whom were indicted huge penalties by apex court and provincial inspection team in different corruption cases.