Peshawar: Gold mining contracts worth approximately PKR 4.93 billion awarded during the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have come under renewed scrutiny over allegations of flawed valuations, preferential treatment and inadequate monitoring.
Samar Haroon Bilour, the KP governor’s information adviser, raised the allegations on Friday, citing an October 2024 official report and objections attributed to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Reports of her statement said NAB had sought records from the provincial minerals department concerning placer gold auctions along the Indus and Kabul rivers.
Placer gold consists of particles deposited in river sediments after erosion carries them from surrounding rocks. Extracting it involves processing sand, gravel and other deposits rather than necessarily digging underground shafts.
The four contract amounts listed in the supplied details total PKR 4.9271 billion. That is their reported auction value, not an established loss to the provincial treasury.
Valuation and allotment questioned
The reported allocations were PKR 1.25 billion for Block A, PKR 1.261 billion for Block B, PKR 1.305 billion for Block C and PKR 1.1111 billion for Block D.
The allegations include disregarding a 2015 geological study when setting reserve prices, failing to establish reliable estimates of gold deposits and issuing allotment letters despite agreements allegedly not being completed within the prescribed 14 days.
A reserve price is the minimum acceptable auction bid. Whether an auction secures fair value depends partly on the quality of the geological information used to set that benchmark, alongside competition and the contract terms.
Former chief minister Gandapur has defended the process, maintaining that the auctions achieved higher prices than previous arrangements and fulfilled legal requirements.
Mining activity and revenue records
The supplied account also alleges that mining continued in November 2024 despite a Peshawar High Court stay, and without necessary environmental approvals or mining plans. Establishing a breach would require examining the court order’s precise scope and the activities undertaken.
Further allegations concern more than 1500 excavators and weekly payments of PKR 500000 to PKR 700000 per machine through unauthorised subleasing. The resulting weekly revenue estimates are allegations, not verified receipts or established profits.
Incomplete production and sales records would make it harder to reconcile extraction with payments due to the government. Riverbed operations also require scrutiny of excavation methods, sediment disturbance and rehabilitation arrangements.
The original NAB correspondence, court order and complete auction files were not available for this report. The claims therefore remain allegations, while the companies and responsible officials’ detailed responses remain necessary to assess the individual contracts.
