ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Balochistan government to provide details of agreements it made with foreign companies for exploration of gold and copper mines in Reko Diq area in Balochistan.
A four-member bench – comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday – was hearing a case against leasing of Reko Diq gold and copper mines in Balochistan worth more than $260 billion to foreign exploration and mining companies by the federal government in violation of the law.
Raza Kazim, lawyer for one of the petitioners, told the court that law did not permit a joint venture without acquiring a prospective licence for exploration of gold and copper mines. He said the Balochistan government entered into an agreement under a joint venture for the Reko Diq project in 1993 and the project was executed on January 10, 1994, adding that rules did not allow for such an agreement.
The above remarks of Supreme Court of Pakistan had made me upset to think that how weakly the case was defended in Supreme Court. Please see my timely comments below, before the final decision of Court came.
(T.C.C. was given license only for geological estimation of Reko-Diq copper-gold reserves which has been completed. While they do not have mining and ore processing rights for which they insisted in the Supreme Court).
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