The Foreseen Earthshake Beneath Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Soil (El Dorado) — The 2025 Mines & Minerals Bill

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa holds more than just minerals beneath its soil — it holds heritage, resilience, and untapped potential but with the introduction of the 2025 Mines & Minerals Bill, we must pause and ask ourselves: “Are we truly unearthing prosperity and inclusive growth or burying the rights of those who’ve long struggled beneath the surface?”

Marketed as a move toward “modernisation” — a contemporary pathway for domestic and foreign investors, this bill proposes:

1. A Rs. 25 million bank guarantee for mining leases, a financial wall that would lock out over 90% of small-scale miners, who’ve kept the sector alive through sheer will, despite systemic neglect.

2. The creation of centralized bodies like the Mineral Investment Facilitation Authority (MIFA) aparently seems to be a tool to centralize control, weakening Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s constitutional autonomy under the post-18th Amendment landscape.

3.Structures that prioritize corporate giants while sidelining local, indigenous operators; the very people who’ve sustained this land for generations.

The Minerals Association of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has firmly rejected the bill, citing no consultation, no transparency, and foreseeable consequences like mass unemployment and worsening law and order especially if local voices continue to be ignored.
If passed without meaningful reform, this bill could jeopardize Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s entire mining sector, undermine its constitutional rights, and devastate thousands of families who depend on this industry for survival.

This isn’t just a policy making stance but a trial for justice, identity, and the right to self-determination of which stakes are transparency, inclusion, and the very fabric of provincial autonomy.