PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has sought comments from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to the petition of a mining contractor against recommendation to cancel his prospecting licence for nephrite mining in Mohmand district.

A bench consisting of Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Syed Arshad Ali fixed Oct 30 for next hearing into a petition filed by contractor Khalid Yousaf asking respondents, including the director-general (mines and minerals) and other officials, to maintain status quo on the matter.

It decided after preliminary hearing to issue notices to the KP Mineral Title Committee (licensing authority), Mohmand district’s deputy commissioner, an assistant director (technical) of the mineral development and the dispute resolution committee (DRC) concerned through its chairman, and directed them to file comments.

The petitioner requested the court to declare illegal and void an impugned order issued on Sept 13, 2023, by the DRC recommending that the “prospecting” licence for nephrite mining granted to him be unconditionally cancelled in favour of another contractor.

Contractor moved PHC to retain his licence for nephrite mining in Mohmand

The petitioner’s lawyer, Umair Iqbal, said that his client had executed valid agreements in 2019 with some landowners in Shati Mena village of Ambar tehsil in Mohmand tribal district regarding mining operation there.

He said that the agreements were executed in line with the prevailing tribal customs of the locality.

The counsel said that the KP Mines and Mineral Act, 2017, was enacted to effectively regulate minerals, mines and mining in the province.

He said that after the merger of Fata with KP, certain changes were made to the said law and the Schedule VIII was included in it that governed and regulated mining procedures in tribal districts.

Mr Iqbal argued that his client had applied for licence for nephrite on Oct 29, 2021, following which the relevant officials had initiated the required procedure on March 11, 2022.

He said that the tehsildar concerned submitted his report on March 25, 2022, declaring that the site being applied for the grant of licence was free from any problems and a public meeting might be convened in accordance with that schedule.

The counsel contended that the meeting in question was convened on March 29.

He added that while that exercise was completed successfully, some elements started conspiring against the petitioner and individual Qabil Khan forwarded a complaint against him on March 31, 2022, insisting that the petitioner didn’t have valid agreements with the representatives of the tribe concerned.

Mr Iqbal said that an inquiry conducted by the government found the complaint to be baseless after which the minerals title committee (licensing authority) issued a licence to him for a period of five years over an area of 49.17 acres.

He claimed that certain elements again conspired against the petitioner and a complaint was filed by an individual, Rana Qaiser Mehmood, prompting the deputy commissioner to constitute the DRC under Schedule VIII for digging out facts regarding the controversy.

The lawyer contended that instead of giving regard to available records, the DRC issued the impugned order recommending unconditional cancellation and withdrawal of his licence.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2023