GILGIT: The residents of Nasirabad town in Hunza on Sunday accused the Gilgit-Baltistan minerals department of failure to comply with an agreement reached in July regarding a tiff over the extraction of marble in the area.

The residents, during a press conference at the Hunza Press Club, said they were granted a lease by the government in 1989 to extract marble and a local company had been mining the natural resource since then.

They added the government was receiving regular lease payments from the locals for extraction of marble from the mountain “owned by them” for the purpose.

However, in 2004, the minerals department allegedly manipulated the map of the area and awarded a contract to a non-local company in the same area, the residents said.

Residents claim govt not complying with agreement due to ‘influential’ company owner; GB official blames ‘lack of mutual understanding’

They alleged foul play in the award of the contract and said since the owner of the company was an “influential person”, the department along with police and local administration was bending over backward to facilitate the new contract.

They said the decision to grant the licence to a non-local investor was akin to the “economic murder” of locals who had “the foremost right over natural resources” in the area.

The simmering anger and attempts to stop residents from mining in the area gave way to a protest in July which ended only after an agreement with GB Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid Khan, who assured that the government would fulfil their demands.

According to the locals, the chief minister, in talks with the protesters, had agreed to provide route permits to move the already extracted marble, allow locals to continue mining in the area, and a new lease to the company for mining of almandite.

However, despite a lapse of three months, there has been no headway, they said, accusing the minerals secretary of delaying the CM’s directives. They said despite the chief minister’s orders, locals were being issued notices to stop mining in the area.

They also questioned the silence of the chief minister and officials concerned over the issue and their refusal to meet the locals over the issue.

They added that if no action was taken within seven days to implement the agreement reached in July, they will announce their next strategy.

‘Everything by the book’

However, an official of the GB minerals department rejected the claims made by the locals. He told Dawn that the three demands of Nasirabad residents couldn’t be implemented due to a deadlock between the private company owner and the residents.

The official said the contract was awarded to the company after fulfilment of legal procedures and added the lease could not be cancelled without any reason.

The government could not reduce the mining area covered by the private company without “mutual understanding”, the official said, adding that an NOC was needed to be produced by the residents for the department’s intervention in the issue.

He added that for a new lease, the locals needed to submit documents, such as a business plan. The GB minerals department will solve the issues after fulfilment of required legal procedures, the official added.

In July, a week-long protest was staged on the Karakoram Highway in Nasirabad by the locals for the acceptance of their demands.

GB CM Khan had negotiated with the protesters along with senior minister Ubaidullah Baig, director minerals, and local administration and promised to resolve their issues within seven days.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2022