'Reko Diq settlement to restore country's economic credentials'.

ISLAMABAD -- Amicus curae Zahid Ibrahim on Monday submitted before the Supreme Court of Pakistan that the Reko Diq settlement will restore Pakistan's economic credentials on the world stage and will also resonate much beyond the mineral rich hills of Chaghi.' He submitted this before a five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail while hearing the presidential reference on the Reko Diq project. During the hearing, Zahid Ibrahim said; 'Yes, the foreign mining companies in TCCA will stand to recover their investments, but Pakistan too stands to gain.' He argued that the Balochistan government vigorously defended CHEJVA before the Balochistan High Court as legal and transparent. However, its representatives made a drastic and unexplained reversal during pendency of the proceedings in the Supreme Court where it resiled from its stated position and instead targeted CHEJVA as illegal and contrary to the interests of Balochistan. He said that in the proceedings in the BHC 'Advocate General, while supporting the arguments of learned counsel for respondents, stated that government of Balochistan has rightly entered into CHEJVA and it is in the best interest of the people of Balochistan that the Project should continue and in case, it is stopped, it would not be in the interest of the people of Balochistan and further stated that business of exploring and mining is risky business involving huge amounts and modern technology and the government of Balochistan has no resources to explore the minerals, thus CHEJVA was rightly arrived at with BHP and thereafter the area was assigned to respondent No 4 who spent a huge amount in exploration.' He continued that in appeal against the BHC in the Supreme Court, the counsel of the Balochistan government made shocking disclosures of extensive irregularities and corruption. Such change in position was critical in the denial of the mining lease application and the ultimate conclusion reached in the Maulvi Abdul Haq Baloch Judgment. Ibrahim said that proceedings in the Balochistan High Court were instituted on the basis of allegations made in a newspaper article dated 26.5.2004, which were ironically withdrawn by the same newspaper a week later. However, the petition took a life of its own during the hearings in the Apex Court. He also said that this...