PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) President Aimal Wali Khan on Monday rejected the proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mines and Minerals Act 2025, branding it a formal mechanism to hand over the province’s mineral resources to military institutions.
He announced a province-wide protest movement to resist what he termed the “legalisation of exploitation.”
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting of the party’s special committee, Khan said the act gives a legal cover to the military’s existing control of the province’s mineral wealth, facilitated through the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Federal Minerals Wing.
Calling the legislation “a broad daylight robbery” of the province’s rights, Aimal Wali warned that ANP’s movement now goes beyond just opposing the act—it is a renewed campaign for provincial autonomy and full implementation of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
The party plans to initiate a multi-phase awareness and protest campaign starting in April. It will include outreach efforts in universities, colleges, and religious institutions, followed by district-level all-parties conferences. Street-level mobilization will unfold in phases—village-level protests in June, tehsil-level in July, and district-level protests in August.
A major protest is scheduled in Peshawar in September, with a potential long march to Islamabad in October if demands are not met.
Reaffirming his party’s stance, Aimal Wali stated, “Either give us our rights or give us freedom.” He linked the ANP’s political marginalisation—including attacks, electoral rigging, and exclusion from governance—to its vocal opposition to centralized control over provincial resources.
Appealing for unity across political and ideological divides, he called on all Pakhtuns to rally against the bill, declaring it a matter of national survival for the people of the province.
