KP gold mining ban: Governor Kundi cancels all leases, gives miners a week
After 10 policemen died in Kohat, KP Governor Kundi suspended all gold mining and cancelled leases. What the order says, the figures he gave and what next.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has stopped all gold mining. Governor Faisal Karim Kundi told a press conference in Peshawar on Saturday, 14 November, that mining is suspended across the province with immediate effect and every gold mining lease is cancelled. Leaseholders and contractors have one week to pull their heavy machinery out of the mining areas, or it will be seized, Dawn reported.
The order comes days after the attack near Kohat in which 10 policemen, including DSP Haider Zaman, were killed while returning from an operation against illegal gold mining. Police said 18 militants were also killed in that fight.
Why can the governor order this?
Because KP has been under governor’s rule since 11 October, when the federal government imposed an emergency in the province, citing the security situation. Kundi now runs the province with an 11-member advisory council and a new chief secretary. He was flanked on Saturday by the adviser for mines and minerals, the chief secretary and the provincial police chief, The News reported.
What did Kundi say is happening in Kohat?
He gave a long list of figures, all his own claims, which no independent body has checked yet, and outlets reported some of them slightly differently. According to Dawn, The News and ARY News, he said:
- Mining in Kohat’s blocks C and D used about 8,350 trucks and tractors, 3,660 excavators and 1,600 dumpers, with 49,000 to 51,000 labourers.
- About 90 kilograms of gold was being taken out every month, worth roughly Rs4.2 billion, while a ten-year lease had been granted for Rs4.92 billion.
- Around 80 percent of the money went to Afghanistan and funded attacks on Pakistan.
- Militants, whom the state calls Fitna al-Khawarij, collected weekly extortion from miners: up to Rs800,000 from local operators, according to the governor.
“There will be zero tolerance for those involved in this,” Kundi said.
Who did the governor name?
Kundi read out 12 names of politicians and local figures he alleged had backed illegal mining, including PTI’s Aftab Alam, MNA Shehryar Afridi and Senator Khurram Zeeshan, as well as figures linked to the PPP and JUI-F. He also named Naveed, the brother of former chief minister Sohail Afridi. The News reported that he said no FIRs had been registered against them. These are allegations; none of the reports we read carried a response from those named.
What happens to miners and workers now?
For now, nothing moves. Kundi said a task force named after DSP Haider Zaman will draw up a lasting gold mining policy within about three weeks, and ARY News reported that mining is meant to restart under a regulated system after that. Fines, he said, will no longer stop at Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 but can go up to Rs2 million under the law.
That leaves tens of thousands of daily-wage workers, by the governor’s own count, without work until the new rules arrive.
Who will investigate?
A judicial commission headed by a Peshawar High Court judge will be formed next week to look into the Kohat attack and how so many licences were issued. Dawn reported it will be led by a retired judge; ARY News said a sitting one.
Watch for two dates: the machinery deadline around 21 November, and the new mining policy in early December.
