Former Senate chairperson Raza Rabbani emphasised on Monday that the federal government should “immediately” take parliament into confidence on its “new US policy”, particularly mentioning media reports about the sale of rare minerals and the supposed plan to offer Pasni port to Washington.
“The federal government has not taken the people or parliament into confidence on the dynamics of the new relationship with the United States,” Rabbani stated in a press release. He added, “It is the right of the people to know the details and the direction of the foreign policy. In history, the US has never been a reliable friend to depend upon.”
On the sale of precious and rare minerals to American metals company US Strategic Metals (USSM), he said it was “unfortunate” that information about the deal had come through the media.
He stressed that “real stakeholders” in this matter were the provinces, which should have been taken into confidence through the Council of Common Interests.
“The federal government fails to realise that Article 172 [of the 1973] Constitution […] is in operation, [and] the provinces are 50 per cent owners of the mineral resources,” Rabbani pointed out.
According to Article 172: “Any property which has no rightful owner shall, if located in a province, vest in the government of that province, and in every other case, in the federal government […] Subject to the existing commitments and obligations, mineral oil and natural gas within the province or the territorial water adjacent thereto shall vest jointly and equally in that province and the federal government.”
In this connection, he also recalled that the provinces had “rejected the federal government-sponsored minerals law”.
The legislation has particularly faced opposition in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and even ignited debate on resource control.
Rabbani further stated that it was “alarming” to learn from the international media that Pasni port may be offered to Washington. “This will have very serious repercussions on the other regional relationships,” he said.
He asserted that the federal government should “immediately take parliament into confidence on the various aspects of its new US policy”.
The former Senate chairperson’s assertion comes against the backdrop of Pakistan is entering a new phase in its economic and strategic partnership with the US, as the two allies move closer to implementing a deal for the export of rare earth minerals.
USSM, which signed a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan in September to invest roughly $500 million to establish mineral processing and development facilities in the country, recently dispatched its first consignment of mineral samples to the US to advance the deal.
The sample shipment, prepared locally in collaboration with the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), includes antimony, copper concentrate, and rare earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium.
But the opposition party, the PTI, has raised concerns over these “secret deals” with the US, and called on the government to disclose the details of these agreements.
In a statement, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqqas Akram referred to the USSM shipment, as well as claims published by the Financial Times regarding a supposed plan to offer the Pasni Port to Washington. He warned that such “reckless, lopsided, and secretive agreements would further inflame the already volatile situation in the country”.
He demanded that parliament and the nation be taken on board and that “full details of all such deals be made public.” Akram stressed that PTI “would never accept agreements struck at the expense of the people and the state’s interests”.
Military sources have already disputed the claims made in the Financial Times report, calling the proposal “a commercial idea” rather than “official policy”.