It’s been a number of days since the unfortunate Mohmand marble mine collapse which killed at least 22 people yet nobody can tell just where this matter is going. Tragic as all the deaths are, it was still hoped that this disaster would trigger some sort of thought process somewhere that would introduce some reforms in the mining sector. The main problems lies with mine owners and their mindset of refusing to modernise, which holds the industry hostage to age old methods and practices. And that is the singular reason behind so many accidents in mines which result in needless deaths of workers. It is interesting to note that even some senior ministers of the PTI government have come out in the open with their demand for improving working condition in these death traps. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary, especially, has called for enactment and enforcement of proper labour laws. How can it be that we claim to have a charter of an Islamic welfare state, that too one modeled on the holy state of Medina, and it has taken such a huge tragedy to remind just one sitting minister of the importance of proper labour laws? For, had such laws existed and had the legal system been powerful enough to enforce them, then owners of mines where workers die completely unnecessary deaths due to easily avoidable accidents would never hear the end of it. Unfortunately it seems that it is going to be business as usual now that a little time has passed since the incident. The Mohmand accident was not the only one of its kind. Clearly this is a trend staring every figure in power especially within the industry in the face yet nobody has bothered to even so much as take note of it. Yet sooner or later this sector, and others like it, would have no choice but to embrace 21st century technology and methodology. Therefore it is in the interest of everybody, especially the poor workers that meet their deaths in these mines, to look into these issues and solve them in the shortest possible time. *