Govt, its bodies lack coordination: CJ

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday again directed the Balochistan government to produce today (Wednesday) complete record of award of exploration and mining licences of Reko Diq gold and copper mines to a foreign company, the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC).

A four-member bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, was hearing a case against leasing of Reko Diq gold and copper mines in Balochistan worth over $260 billion to foreign exploration and mining companies by the federal government in violation of law.

The court expressed dissatisfaction over the record presented by the Balochistan government and redirected Advocate General Balochistan Dr Salahuddin Mengal to produce the complete record of Reko Diq deal, including notifications of the award and concessions and relaxations given to the foreign company by relaxing rules.
“The relaxation in rules without approval of the mining committee had no legal status,” the chief justice observed.

Sahibzada Ahmad Raza Qasuri, the counsel for the Sanjrani tribe, told the court that in the joint venture agreement of 1994, the BHP company was given relaxations in award of exploration licences. Under the rules, he said one company can obtain one licence at a time, however the BHP was given more than one licence at a time, which was a violation of Article 247(3) of the Constitution. Therefore, he said the agreement and its continuity should be cancelled.

Justice Ramday asked the counsel, “If your contention is accepted, then the mining would end in the country,” adding that “do you want we should go to the stone age?” “If this contention is accepted, not only mining but also the development projects would suffer,” the chief justice noted.

The court asked the AG Balochistan to produce the notification of the 1994 joint venture agreement, but he failed to produce any such document. However, he told the court that the Balochistan Development Authority (BDA) had not written any letter to the mining committee for relaxation of rules for awarding a licence to the BHP which, he said, was also confirmed by the DG Mining and Development, Balochistan. The court then directed him to present a written statement in this regard.

“It appears, there is lack of coordination between the government and its institutions,” Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry observed. He said without the approval of the mining committee, rules could not be relaxed.

The court directed the secretary Industries, Balochistan, to thoroughly examine the record before submitting it in the court, as any statement given in haste could damage the career of any official.