Bureau Report
PESHAWAR: Known as land of three mighty mountains ranges of Hindukash, Himalaya and Karakoram, Pakistan is blessed with varieties of precious gemstones deposits and ranked fifth among world countries having its largest reservoirs in northwest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and southeast of Balochistan.
The country’s having best geographical location and unique mountains lofty ranges is gifted with abundance of precious and semi-precious gemstones including the world recognized most expensive Rubby, Emerald, Sapphire, Aquamarine, Topaz, Quartz, Zircon, Garnet, Turquoise, Peridot, Spinet, Tourmaline, Feldspar, Agate, Lapis Lazuli and Opal etc. mostly found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Merged Areas (erstwhile Fata), Gilgit Baltistan, south west of Balochistan. (and become a centre of attracting for domestic and international gemstones lovers.)
khyber Pakhtunkhwa including its merged tribal districts is very rich in having huge deposits of the best, rare and valuable varieties of gemstones mostly existing in Mardan, Swat, Hazara, Chitral, Kohistan, tribal districts of Mohmand, Bajaur besides Gilgit, Chalas, Skardu, Hunza in Gilgit Baltistan, Nagarparkar in Sindh, Chagai, Lasbela in Balochistan and Neelum Valley in Azad Kashmir and becomes the preffered choices of the international investors and jewelry traders of Europe, South East Asia, CARs, US, SAARC and Gulf countries.
Mamoor Khan, Patron-in-Chief, All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA), Peshawar told that Pakistan has abundance of gemstones reservoirs beyond one’s imagination and the Government patronage was required to take full economic advantage of this hidden treasure for socio-economic well being of people.
He said border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan have huge gemstones’ deposits that have an easy access to Peshawar, making it a hub of gemstones trading both for domestic and foreign dealers, jewelers and mineral specimen collectors.
About two to three lacs people were directly or indirectly associated with gemstones’ business in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including nearly 100,000 in Peshawar, he said.
“Emerald of Swat, Topaz of Mardan, Peridot of Kohistan and Rubby of Azad Kashmir have been acknowledged as one of the best in the world because of their unique colour, design, quality and their demand has increased manifold in the domestic and international markets,” he said.
He maintained that sometimes these precious gemstones were either lost during blasting due to lack of modern equipment with minor damage or their designs become out of shape due to use of sharp tools during the search process at airports that needed to be avoided.
In Peshawar, he said the majority of stone cutters and polishers manually do stone faceting on archaic machines, and a lot of time was being consumed to bring inherent luster and desired symmetry of stones as per requirement of domestic and international investors.
The famous Namak Mandi in Peshawar has been known as gemstones street from where gemstones are being exported to US, Hong Kong, Germany, England, France, UK, Thailand, SAARC, Central Asia and Gulf countries.
He said 20 gemstones exhibitions including 15 in Peshawar were organised in the country since 1994 by APCEA that attracted international buyers from across the world to explore and buy the expensive jewels of Pakistan.
He admitted that COVID 19 has made negative effects on gemstones’ exports besides shortage of excavation, cutting and polishing machinery were making adverse effects on gemstones production in KP .
Despite its rich reservoirs and raw materials, this latent wealth is yet to be fully untapped due to use of primitive methods in exploration, archaic tools, unavailability of modern technology and appropriate expertise of labourers, necessitating extensive training to entrepreneurs and minors, withdraw of taxes and financial resources for its optimal utilization for the Pakistan’s economic and social prosperity. Moreover, despite many hurdles and challenges including past’s unrest in merged areas and COVID-19, he said APECA had contributed Rs8.406 million US dollars through the gemstone sector to the national exchequer in the last three years.
Gems and Gemological Institute of Pakistan (GGIP) at Peshawar needs to be strengthened in terms of establishment of a modern laboratory, equipment and allocation of special funds from Exports Development Fund (EDF) on the pattern of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan to properly train youth and enhance skills of minors imperative to enhance gemstones’ exports.
