Eleven billion dollars is not a meager amount for a country such as Pakistan which looks for a couple of billion dollars every now and then just to keep its economy afloat. A dispute of this magnitude can make or break the economic survival of the country, if sagacious decisions are not taken in a timely manner. So the agreement signed recently with Barrick Gold is a welcome respite for a country teetering on the verge of economic collapse. Of course, there are other aspects that deserve attention too. The Canadian mining company Barrick Gold is a huge conglomerate that can twist its way through all legal and technical complexities if the right deal is on the table. At the heart of the matter was the attempt to reach some solution to the dispute because Pakistan was not in a position to impose any conditions or seek more concessions. Despite some raising justifiable questions about the deal, perhaps it was the best one could get in the given circumstances.
The perception that Pakistan is not an investment-friendly nation is the result of some previous court decisions and the inability of successive governments to do much about them. But it is not the courts alone that have put the country in this unenviable environment. Our bureaucracy – both at the federal and provincial levels – leaves much to desire in terms of its own preparation while dealing with international interlocutors at higher levels. A sine qua non for such negotiations is meticulous readings and observation regarding the deal one is going to discuss.
Looking at the Reko Diq agreement, there is a sense of lack of transparency at various stages, including details about the quantities of minerals extracted and the final output that will be exported. Since the extractions will not be in a refined form, the final and refined output will not be easy to determine. One possible solution could be to have a refinery within the country so that the estimates of actual worth could be verified. This is a trilateral deal involving the companies and our federal and provincial governments. In all this, one hopes the fourth and arguably the most significant stakeholder is not forgotten: the people of Balochistan who are the actual owners of the land and mines. Lack of transparency ends up in reservations and scepticism. While it is understandable that Pakistan is in no position to impose its conditions, it should work to ensure that the maximum benefit – be it in the form of jobs or anything else – goes to the people whose land is being mined. That should hopefully placate some of the discomfort that has also been aired by nationalist politicians in Balochistan.
