Press Release
Implementation of Capitalist Economic System and Following International Law will Always Deprive us from Treasures like Reko Diq

On 12th July 2019, the tribunal of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) gave a verdict in a case which was filed by TCC against the cancellation of mining rights in Reko Diq which is part of Baluchistan province. The tribunal ordered Pakistan to pay almost 6 billion dollars to TCC as penalty for cancelling her contract. After the announcement of this verdict a discussion has emerged across the country that the verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2013, which cancelled the contract with TCC, may be a popular verdict but it damaged the confidence of foreign investors and now Pakistan has to bear financial loss as well because of the verdict of the international tribunal.

If the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood had been established in Pakistan, this problem would not have arisen at all. Islam declares mineral resources as public property and mandates that the state looks after their mining, processing of ore and their sale, and whatever wealth is generated through such resources must be used for the welfare of the people as they are the actual owners of these resources. According to this command of Islam oil, gas and mineral resources can never be privatized and handed over to a local or foreign company and such companies cannot work on these resources as owners of these resources. Therefore Islam mandates the state to look after the management of mineral resources on behalf of the people.

The Bajwa-Imran regime constituted a commission on this matter which is purely a deception because the attorney general of the regime welcomed the statement of the parent company of TCC in which it showed willingness to resolve the matter of mining contract of Reko Dik through negotiations. Also the attorney general said that Pakistan took its international legal obligations seriously. It means that the regime is going to use the verdict of international tribunal to hand over the world’s fifth largest gold mine to international investors. So a foreign company will take the lion’s share of this wealth and Pakistan and its people won’t get anything except a few pennies. We already have the example of Saindak project in Baluchistan where a Chinese company has been mining copper for many years but Pakistan did not get any significant wealth from the project to change the fate of even the few thousand local people living in Saindak who are still living in poverty.

O Muslims of Pakistan! The capitalist system passionately advocates the privatization of natural resources because of its belief in the “Freedom of Ownership”. This means that valuable treasures go in the hands of a small capitalist elite and the state and the people remain poor. The capitalist system through democracy ensures that companies of colonialist powers become the owners of treasures such as Reko Diq under the name of foreign investment. And at any time if the oppression of the colonialist companies is exposed and a conflict emerges between the foreign company and the oppressed country and its people then courts and tribunals established by colonialists will secure the interest of international colonialist companies. Such a state of affairs can only end when we abandon democracy and establish Khilafah (Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood in Pakistan which will declare mineral and all natural resources as public property and international colonialist powers won’t be allowed to exploit and loot our wealth. And the Khilafah will reject and abandon international courts and law because Allah (swt) has not allowed Muslims to grant kuffar authority in their matters or to refer their disputes to Kuffar. Allah (swt) said,

(وَلَن يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلًا) “Allah (swt) does not permit the believers to grant the kuffar authority over them.” [Surah An-Nisa’a 4:141].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Pakistan