PESHAWAR: Due to prevailing law and order situation, The Buner District Administration has restricted supply of explosive materials for blasting in the marble mines in the district.

It is feared that hundreds factories would be affected by this decision across the district as it is impossible to keep the marble mining in operation without explosive material.

According to lease holders on the pretext of law and order situation, the district administration has closed over 800 marble leases and thousands of labourers have been rendered jobless. They said that millions of rupees worth installed machinery would be affected due to the ban.

Senior vice president of Buner Marble Industry Association, Gulroz Khan, said that the decision of the district administration will not only affect more than 600 marble industries in Buner, but will also stop marble supply to Mardan, Rasalpur and Jangira industrial zones and will affect millions of people. Khan said that thousands of people and services are indirectly associated with this sector including  marble factories in Mardan and other districts.

Marble mining lease holders said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is collecting billions of rupees annually from the marble sector of Buner in the form of various taxes, but such decisions, the government is trying to shut shut down the marble sector.

Former Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Bakht Jahan Advocate said that the employment of most of the people in Buner is dependent on marble mining. He said that though gunpowder is officially banned but available in black on higher prices in convenience with the officials of the district administration. He said that this move would led to further unemployment in the district amid the rising prices of essential commodities.

Syed Fakhr Jahan, a PTI lawmaker of Provincial Assembly from Buner, said that licenses holders in Buner were used to sell gunpowder in other districts, forcing the administration to suspend their licenses which has led to current crisis. He said that right now only one license holder is active who is providing explosives to mining sector.

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