These questions have now become the centre of a major political controversy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At the heart of the issue is the Mohmand Khail Copper Project, located in North Waziristan.
Copper is extracted from the ground and then processed further at a plant. The project is overseen by a company called Daqing Exploration Works, a subsidiary of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).
FWO is known in Pakistan for working on roads and construction projects. According to the company’s website, the project has been operational since 2019, and its plant has the capacity to process 1,500 tonnes of minerals per day.
With so much copper being extracted, where is the money going? The project was granted a mining lease for 20 years in 2016.
The following year, an agreement was signed with the government setting out how the project’s profits would be distributed. Under the agreement, the company was to receive 50 per cent, a government department 10 per cent, a fund for local welfare projects 22 per cent, and a national commission 18 per cent.
According to official records, approximately 953,000 tonnes of minerals were extracted from the project between 2016 and 2024.
During the same period, around Rs190 million was collected in royalties, land rent and other government dues. Royalty is the amount paid to the government in return for extracting minerals from a mine.
However, this is where the disagreement begins. Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Minerals Arif Ahmadzai says the province is not receiving the full benefit of the income generated from its resources.
Awami National Party leader Nisar Baz Khan has also claimed that there is a significant gap between the amount the province receives from the Mohmand Khail project and what it is entitled to. According to him, a five per cent royalty would amount to approximately Rs34.5 billion.
Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif disagrees with these allegations. He says the FWO was granted only one mining licence in North Waziristan.
He added that the number of mineral licences in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa increased rapidly during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, and a total of 4,917 licences have now been issued.
The issue is now being linked to the emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The federal government says the emergency was imposed because of increasing militant attacks. However, some politicians, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, allege that gaining control over mineral resources could also be one of the reasons behind the decision.
