Peshawar: The All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) has requested the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to devise legislation for the development of mining sector of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a news source reported. APCEA Chairman Engineer Manzoor Elahi expressed his views on the matter.
He stated that the newly-merged tribal areas were home to large deposits of minerals that remained untapped. He was of the opinion that necessary legislation would facilitate the development of the mining sector.
Elahi said that the provincial government could generate revenue worth billions of rupees for both the national and provincial exchequers through exploitation and utilisation of the mineral resources earthed in the tribal regions.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has stated that development of the tribal areas is one of the top priorities of the executive. He expressed his views on the matter during a recent meeting held to review the progress on uplift projects being developed in the tribal districts.
During the meeting, the PM stressed that the locals had faced hardships, and that the government was making all possible efforts for the socio-economic development of these districts.
