No doubt, investment is of an utmost significance in the socio-economic advancement of a country. In circumstances the arrival of a foreign investor for investment would be a blessing of God. But salute to our leaders and their “multitalented advisors” who have failed to eradicate malpractices from PSE’s (Public Sector Enterprises); a noteworthy example of negligence is of Rekodeq Project. This copper-cum-gold mining project has become an apple of discord between the government of Balochistan and Tethyan Copper Company Pakistan Ltd. (TCC). This agreement was inked between GoB and BHP Billiton in 1993. In 2000, BHP transferred 75 per cent of it shares to TCC. This deal was, and is totally in line with Chagai Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement (CHEJVA) and Balochistan Minerals Rules (BMR) 2002. The estimated mine-life of this project is 56 years while the mineral reserves are estimated to be about 5.9 billion tonnes. 2006 onwards, the mining company has invested more than US $220 million on this project – the single largest foreign direct investment in Pakistan.
The government of Balochistan has discarded the mining license application of TCC that has invested its resources to bring Reko Diq on the map. The provincial government did not even bother to negotiate with TCC on their feasibility report and backtracked on CHEJVA that was signed seventeen years ago and was even endorsed by the Supreme Court in its hearing of the case. But media reports exuding fallacies synthesized many questions regarding the project’s future.
Now the company has gone for international arbitration to safeguard its legal rights which are in line with the CHEJVA Agreement and Balochistan Mineral Rules 2002. If the company succeeds in having the court’s decision in its favour then the government does not seem to be in a position to reimburse company’s finances. Sources claim that the provincial government has requested to the apex court to declare the said agreement null and void because it fears that the possible decision in result of arbitration will be in investor’s favour.
On the other hand, some Chinese and American firms have also entered in this “Copper-Gold Race”. The recent advancements on the part of the provincial government reveal that it has made its mind that it will not issue the license to TCC but is in a fix while earmarking the “friend-country” it should exalt; America or China.
The question is why the government has not given time to the company representatives? If the government is really interested in the well being of its people and is well aware of the far-reaching effects of this project on country’s economy then why it did not go for a new feasibility report? If the company was not following mining rules or by-passing any law then why the government did not bother to take a stern action against it in the past seventeen years?
I fail to understand why, and on whose behest, the chief minister of Balochistan and the nuclear scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand are bent upon tarnishing the reputation of Pakistan in front of foreign investors by sabotaging a seventeen years old joint venture agreement by creating false propaganda I have no doubt about Dr Mand’s patriotic spirit but it’s not explicable how he will complete this mega-project without modern technology and finances while he is not feeling at home with the government machinery in the process of Thar Coal Project.
Projects like these require unlimited resources and people with proven expertise and track record. We don’t have such modern technology apparatus and financial resources which are considered necessary for the successful accomplishment of this project. For Balochistan to prosper, it needs much more than gold and copper reserve, which remains buried underground. Balochistan is in desperate need to improve its human capital to reap the maximal advantage from the natural resources. Remember what happened with Saindak Copper Gold Project. Foreign contractors build it in 1990s. When it came online and Pakistani government took over, it started generating loss after loss despite gold and copper flowing from it. It had become the world’s first loss-making gold mine by the late 1990s and the budgetary comity had to close it down to stop the losses. Later on, it was given to Chinese operators who are running it today!
The need of the hour is that the government should take some serious steps to decide this matter impartially. This is high time for the government to ensure its credibility by promoting investor friendly environment which will rejuvenate our market and will have a positive impact on the socio-economic development of the country.
Shahzad Ali Gill – The writer is a freelance journalist
Fully Agreed.
It does not need any new evidence that we have abundant natural resources in our country and we have tried little to exploit them properly to get rid of our economic woes.
The only exception was our self-sufficiency in natural gas but thanks to our planners that millions of new connections to gain political mileage by successive governments, especially during Musharraf’s regime, criminally uncalculated distribution of CNG station permits and conversion of industries to gas for power generation due to government-imposed exorbitant cost of diesel and furnace oil that today gas has become a rare commodity.
The nation starved itself for the country’s nuclear programme but it has only helped us become equipped with nuclear weapons and there are no chances that the nuclear technology can be used by our scientist for peaceful means, especially for power generation. Our celebrated nuclear scientists are not even capable to overhaul the ailing Chashma and KANUPP plants to solve the energy crisis.
Trillions of rupees of the poor nation were spent over years on the nuclear and missile programmes with no audit requirement. However, the country’s nuclear assets instead of making it invincible have made it more vulnerable.
Now, the ‘un-sung hero’ of Chaghai nuclear tests, head of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Dr Samar Mubarkmand, who is also a member of the country’s Planning Commission and directly or indirectly oversees all state-owned scientific organizations has also taken over the Thar Coal Power Project and the Reko Diq Project – the two most critical assets the nation currently possesses and which have the potential to turn-around the declining economic condition of the country. Mubarakmand has made several strong claims in this regard which have been contested by scientists of his equal stature, if arguably not above, like Dr Qadeer Khan and Dr Farid A Malik, who doubt his capability to lead such projects.
In his column titled “Projects We Cannot Handle” published in The News last year, Dr Qadeer Khan wrote about Thar Coal Power Project: “I can say with authority that we do not have experienced and qualified engineers to handle such a complicated, giant project, to say nothing of my having had to cope with those who indulge in self-projection though they don’t have fundamental knowledge or qualifications in the required field”.
In the same column he wrote further about both Reko Diq and Thar Coal Power projects that “If important projects like those mentioned above are given to Pakistanis, they will become yet more PIAs and Pakistan Steel Mills. Nepotism, overstaffing with unqualified and inexperienced people, overabundance of persons of official cadre, fleets of land cruisers – you name it, it will be there. We have all heard details about the corruption related to the Agosta Submarine. Not only is the fish’s head but the whole body rotten”.
It may be mentioned that Dr AQ Khan and Dr Mubarakmand have never been on good terms and the latter has always tried to discredit him in his various interviews. However, Dr Farid A Malik who is an internationally acclaimed mining expert also has written extensively on this issue and has raised objections on the handling of these projects of immense national importance by Dr Mubarakmand and his team and has termed their claims as “misleading”.
The nation has the right to see a clearer picture of these two projects of critical importance. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should take note of these serious objections raised by people like Dr AQ Khan and Dr Farid A Malik, probe the controversial role and claims of Dr Samar Mubarakmand and make sure that the Reko Diq and Thar Coal Power projects are in safe hands so that billions of rupees demanded by Dr Mubarakmand to fulfill his claims are not wasted further burying the poor people of the country with debt.
The nation must benefit from its natural resources but that will only be possible if proper frameworks and protocols are developed and followed to attract genuine foreign investment to commercially build and run such projects instead of trusting the federal or provincial governments and their rotten, corrupt-to-the-core apparatus to handle on the basis of disputed claims of a nuclear scientist who has no previous experience of commercial gold and copper mining or power generation through coal and everything being done by him and his team about these two projects is on experimental basis.
I totally agree.
Why dont we let the experts do their job—making a bomb and running a commercial enterprise are poles apart.
Thanks Pakistan Today. You gave me the chance to comment on the Reko Dik project.
We all the Pakistanis wish our land to prosper. It is nice to help our self and explore
ourselves. As a matter of fact, mining is a very expensive industry, and Pakistan can
hardly afford multiple excavations at a time. The time is running short for Pakistanis
awaiting for an easy life. The people who want to explore themselves without any foreign investment. It is not a matter of Shirin Farhad, who can dig a ditch of milk for
Shirin in dreams. No matter it takes a century or two.
My friends it is a matter of 180 million Pakistanis. Who are starving and cannot await
for another generation. If we have a vision for a developed Pakistan. Please invite the
western investors with their modern technologies. And let the nation be developed
by our western sponsors.And let the time come, when we will be able explore the
country by ourselves.
Thanks
Nasrullah Khawaja
Sialkot.
WE can only criticize , actually we have to criticize our soul firstly.
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