The 300 local and foreign delegates participating in a two -day mineral summit in Islamabad have renewed the hopes of a growing foreign interest in the Mineral sector of Pakistan, which still does not explore due to lack of financing and access to technology.
When heading to the Pakistan Mineral Investment Forum, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the country’s mineral wealth, “is worth billions of dollars”, could release his economy from perpetual dependence on frequent bailouts of global lenders. Pakistan has enough critical mineral deposits to be a great economic player in his own right, says analyst Equ Sajad Akhtar.
Optimism is strengthened by government emphasis on exporting semi-finished and finished mineral products instead of sending raw materials abroad. No less than 16 comprehension memoranda and strategic agreements were signed with national and international public and private partners. The world experience, however, shows that it has been developing project development for years before cash begins to flow in the mining sector.
TO Sunrise Editorial warns that the agreements must be transparent and based on evaluating the true value of the deposits. If the country really benefits from its mineral wealth, it is also crucial to ensure that subsequent policy and contracts under it cover the entire mineral value chain: the extraction of minerals to local processing and refining for the production of finished products for export.
The true challenge in the transformation of the mineral sector into a cornerstone of economic self -sufficiency lies in the business environment.
The mineral sector currently contributes only around 3.2 percent to Pakistan’s GDP. The real challenge to transform it into a cornerstone of economic self -sufficiency lies in the business environment, says Durdana analyst Najam.
In addition, analysts at dawn emphasize that they must ensure that the people of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa receive the first priority in the work and that the income of subsequent projects is spent on the welfare of people. Unless the financial benefits that accumulate from mineral projects are directed to the development of the province and its population, perception, partly creating the disturbances of Baloch, that the resources of the province are being used for the rest of the country instead of for the economic development of Baluchistan, it will not disappear.
On April 10, Muzzammil Asm, an advisor to the KP Prime Minister, ruled out the possibility of giving mines and minerals to the federal government.
While pursuing a realistic mineral mine and a policy framework, Pakistan must also take into account that the tariff policy of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to cite the leader of the Haroon Sharif development policy, has only served to accelerate the movements to a new economic order that will shape the contours of the global order and politics.
Pakistan will soon have a comprehensive and robust industrial policy that encourages export -led industrialization, reduces import dependence and builds foreign exchange reserves, says Haroon Akhtar Khan, special assistant of the Prime Minister for Industries and Production.
In addition, the Government gives the highest priority to increase water storage and add electricity from clean, green and economically affordable to the national network to provide cheaper electricity to consumers and stabilize the national economy, the Federal Minister of Water Resources, Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, told the officials of the Water Development and Energy Authority (WAPDA) at a recent meeting.
Wattoo expected Wapda to complete his projects on time. The Dasu Hydropower Project’s (Stage-1) estimated cost you have ball rs479 billion in 2014-with an original completion target of December 2019-to RS1.74 Trillion, with the new completion date to novelber 2028. Acquisition and Resettlement Remain Incomplete, According to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Which on April 15 Also Highlightd The Glaring Inempics and Massive Financial Mastag in National Hydroelectric Energy Projects. PAC also expressed concern about the changes in the scope of the DASU project that had led to a significant increase in the cost of the contract.
The WAPDA officials reported the meeting that the projects under construction scheduled for gradually ending from 2026 to 2030 will double the Hydel generation of 9,500 MW to 19,500 MW with the addition of approximately 10,000 MW of electricity clean, green and low cost to the national grid.
However, there is also a strong need and the opportunity to intensify the construction of small dams that have proven effective for the relief of poverty and can be completed in a much shorter time with much smaller investments.
A KP government statement said in July 2024 that 30 small dams would soon be completed at a cost of RS43.6 billion. Prime Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has ordered relevant officials to accelerate work in small dams and ordered the Treasury Department to release the required funds. He also ordered the appointment of two more directors and another personnel to improve the capabilities of the Directorate of Ladies of Small Ladies for the timely completion of the project.
In October 2024, the Sindh government announced that it had built 22 small dams in various parts of Sindh, which are not only providing water to water arid land, but also recharging groundwater and supplying drinking water to remote areas.
Of the 100 dams planned by the Federation in Baluchistan, 64 have been built unfortunately, about 25-30 of these dams were destroyed in the floods of 2022, and since then delays have also occurred in the construction of remaining prey.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 21, 2025
