MARDAN: The Awami National Party, Mardan chapter, on Monday rejected the Mines and Minerals Bill 2025 and termed it an open attack on provincial autonomy.
During a press conference at the Mardan Press Club, ANP district president Imran Manduri, general secretary Fazlur Rehman Bin Yameen, City Mayor Himayatullah Mayar, former lawmaker Gohar Shah Bacha and others said that the Mines and Minerals Bill 2025 was not only a violation of Article 73 of the Constitution and the 18th Amendment, but also a conspiracy to establish supremacy of a group sitting in the federal government and grabbing the provincial resources.
They said that 14 political parties had unanimously rejected the bill during the recent All Parties Conference (APC) at Peshawar and observed that the province had the first right over minerals and natural resources.
The ANP leaders said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already been ravaged by waves of terror, unrest and now depriving the province of its constitutional rights could lead to a situation like 1971.
“The people of this province have rendered matchless sacrifices in the war against terrorism, but they were not compensated properly; rather, their natural resources are being occupied,” City Mayor Himayatullah Mayar said.
Imran Manduri said that oil, gas and electricity were being produced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but despite that, the province was not being given its royalties.The ANP leaders alleged that provincial resources were being handed over to the US and China through this bill, which will be resisted at all costs.
They said that ANP would arrange meetings at the tehsil level and an APC would be called in Mardan on May 15 to devise the future line of action.They urged the people, political parties and civil society to raise their voice against the bill to protect the provincial autonomy and the future of the coming generation.
