Shangla people vow to resist Mines and Minerals Bill

ALPURI: Leaders from various political parties, mining associations, and members of the Shangla Bar Council at a joint press conference at the Shangla Press Club on Monday strongly opposed the proposed Mines and Minerals Bill.

They declared that they would not allow anyone to take control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s mineral resources, which were constitutional and public assets belonging to the local population.The speakers vowed to resist the legislation at all costs and demanded its immediate withdrawal, asserting that only the people of the province had the rightful claim over its resources.

Present at the press conference were leaders of the Shangla Miners Owners Association-Badshah Hussain, Israr Ahmed, Zaid Hussain, Niaz Wali, contractor Ism Khan, and former senator and religious scholar Maulana Rahat Hussain.

Political leaders such as Sultan-e-Rom Khan Advocate from the Awami National Party, Fida Muhammad Khan Advocate from Jamaat-e-Islami, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Muhammad Iqbal Khan Advocate, along with other contractors and representatives from labour organizations, also addressed the gathering.

Before the press conference, a protest was staged at the Alpuri Chowk, where labourers, contractors, leaseholders, and mine owners gathered to express dissatisfaction with the controversial law and forest mapping decisions.

Protesters marched to the press club carrying banners inscribed with slogans rejecting the Mines and Minerals Bill and government policies.Participants made it clear that they would never accept federal control over their local resources and minerals.

They said that neither mine owners, leaseholders, nor contractors supported the proposed bill and alleged that the provincial government seemed eager to surrender its authority to the federation.

The protesters labeled the forest mapping and inclusion of mineral-rich areas into forest zones as a conspiracy that would destroy local employment opportunities.The leaders termed the bill controversial and said if it was not withdrawn, they would take every possible step as protest.

They criticized the Forest Department’s mapping process, which reportedly includes entire villages and mineral zones of Shangla under forest areas despite existing leases. They termed the move as unjust and called for immediate rectification. The speakers said that Shangla had always faced injustice as far as its resources were concerned -be it electricity, forests, or minerals. They said the local population had never benefited from its royalties or resources.

They unanimously passed a resolution demanding that both provincial and federal governments take back the proposed Mines and Minerals Bill and, remove all mineral zones from the newly issued forest maps, and release all pending mineral-related cases in the Forest Department to ensure employment opportunities for the local population.

Shangla Bar Council members announced their intention to challenge the proposed Mines and Minerals Bill and the forest mapping of residential and mineral zones in court. They asserted that they would not allow anyone to take over the resources of Shangla and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and pledged to fight a legal battle to protect the constitutional rights of the local

population over their natural assets.