Provincial control over Saindak
Provincial control over Saindak
Editorial
Editorial

There is a report in the news columns that the Balochistan government has constituted 11 members Parliamentary Committee of the Balochistan Assembly to take up the issue of extending lease of Saindak-Copper-Gold Project to Chinese Company for another five years without taking the leadership of Balochistan into confidence with the Federal government.

There is a report in the news columns that the Balochistan government has constituted 11 members Parliamentary Committee of the Balochistan Assembly to take up the issue of extending lease of Saindak-Copper-Gold Project to Chinese Company for another five years without taking the leadership of Balochistan into confidence with the Federal government.

The committee comprising of Finance Minister, Mir Arif Jan Muhammad Hasni, Information Minister, Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, Opposition member Sana Baloch of BNP-Mengal and Abdul Khaliq Hazara Advisor to the Chef Minister (HDP), Mir Asadullah Baloch (BNP-Awami), Mir Nasibullah Khan Marri, Minister for Health (PTI), Mir Gohram Bugti (JWP), Asghar Khan Achakzai (ANP), Akhtar Hussain Langove (BNP-Mengal),Asghar Ali Tareen and Younis Aziz Zehri.

After the 18th Constitutional Amendment, there is no justification for the Federal Control over Saindak and other oil, gas and mineral related Corporations   as the subject had been transferred to the provinces.

However, control of Saindak Project does not mean that the Chinese company operating will be dislodged as an effect of the changeover. The Company will continue to conclude its contract period according to the international agreement. The main issue is that the Government should transfer all the taxes, mainly the Corporate Tax and profit from the project to the Balochistan Government.

The Federal Government had no right to collect the profit and corporate tax after the 18th Amendment leaving behind merely two per cent royalty on mineral wealth which is peanuts for the provincial Government.

The mineral wealth and its related assets are for the Baloch people and others have no right on it. Interestingly, both the corporations are employing lowest grade people from this province and even Balochistan Government had no access to know the financial deals and knowledge about its assets and profit.

By all means, the Chinese are unpopular among the Baloch people in general and they are unwelcome to the Baloch Mainland for a variety of reasons. They brutally exploited the copper and gold wealth of Balochistan.

The Provincial Government got a small royalty on the production. The Federal Government and Chinese company shared the taxes and profits. The Chinese were provided relief in corporate taxes. The Chinese also failed in fulfilling their corporate responsibility. They failed to provide on-job training facilities to the educated youth of the area.

The situation is very clear that Balochistan Government is real owner and master of Saindak reserves and it should prepare a plan to operate both the giant plants generating revenue for the province.

For this, the Government should find competent officials who should be able to operate the giant companies on the pattern of multi-national corporations.

Local experts and economic managers had operated the Saindak Project during the Trial Production and it was successful and the products fetched a reasonable price. Most of the buyers had shown interests in the Saindak Metals and offered cooperation to develop it further.

It is up to the Balochistan Government to prepare a robust team of economic managers at the earliest and train them so that they should operate it with the cooperation from the friendly countries, including Iran which is operating copper and gold mines in our neighbourhood.

The Balochistan Government should hire technocrats and experts in running the copper and gold plant relieving the present Chinese company for good as it failed to honour its past commitments.

One of the commitments was to establish a refinery for which the Chinese offered soft loan and later on backed out and took the blister copper to China for refining. Thus no one knows the share of gold in the blister copper to this date raising doubt in the mind of the Baloch people that Chinese had fully exploited our resources for 16 long years without any check.

Thus the management should be changed and Balochistan Government should directly control the plant for future operation. This principle should not be confined to the Saindak Copper and Gold Project; it should also apply for the PPL and OGDCL which should also be handed over to the Balochistan Government, if the Federal Government or the real rulers of Pakistan want to win over heart and minds of the Baloch people.