Summary ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has declared the Reko Diq deal with TCC as null and void.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry announced the short verdict in Reko Diq case today, Dunya News reported on Monday.
Reading out the paragraphs 11 and 12 of the short verdict, CJP termed the agreement between the parties illegal, stating that it did not follow the rules and regulations.
Paragraph 12 of the order stated:
“The Chagai Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement dated 23.07.1993 is held to have been executed contrary to the provisions of the Mineral Development Act, 1948, the Mining Concession Rules, 1970 framed thereunder, the Contract Act, 1872, the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, etc., and is even otherwise not valid, therefore, the same is declared to be illegal, void and non est. The Addendum No. 1 dated 04.03.2000, Option Agreement dated 28.04.2000, Alliance Agreement dated 03.04.2002 and Novation Agreement dated 01.04.2006, which are based upon, and emanate from, CHEJVA are also held to be illegal and void”.
“All these instruments do not confer any right on BHP, MINCOR, TCC, TCCP, Antofagasta or Barrick Gold in respect of the matters covered therein. It is further held that EL-5 is tantamount to exploration contrary to rules and regulations as the claim of TCCP is based on CHEJVA, which document itself has been held to be non est. Therefore, before exploration it was incumbent upon it to have sought rectification of its legal status.”
The SC had reserved its judgment on December 21 as counsel of all the petitioners and respondents had completed their arguments.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had been hearing the case constituting of identical petitions filed against the federal government’s decision to lease out gold and copper mines in Reko Diq in Balochistan’s Chagai district to the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) – a Canadian and Chilean consortium of Barrick Gold and Antofagasta Minerals. Reko Diq sits over the popular Tethyan copper belt and is known to have the fifth largest deposits of gold and copper in the world.
Khalid Anwar, counsel for the TCC, defended the lease deal reached between the company and the Balochistan government.
The TCC also invoked the jurisdiction of the International Chambers for Commerce and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputed against the Government of Pakistan for not renewing the prospective Reko Diq minerals licence in accordance with Balochistan Mining Rules 2002.
