Pashtun land is not for sale

Resisting the New Colonialism of Minerals and Militarism

- LEVSA BAYANKHAIL

In Islamabad's gleaming hotels, behind security checkpoints and diplomatic smiles, a summit unfolded that had little to do with development—and everything to do with dispossession. The Minerals Investment Forum 2025, held with fanfare and heavy foreign participation, was presented as a milestone in Pakistan's economic roadmap. But for the Pashtun people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it marked something far more dangerous: the transformation of ancestral lands into corporate extraction zones.

The recently passed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mines and Minerals Act 2025 deepens this betrayal. Far from empowering local communities, it clears the legal path for corporations and federal authorities to grab indigenous land and resources—often under military oversight and without consent. Beneath its bureaucratic language lies a disturbing truth: the colonial playbook has returned, updated for the global minerals race.