New Delhi, Aug 28 While Pakistan Army chief Asif Munir has succeeded in selling his idea of the potential that his country holds for the US to mine rich rare earth materials and oil, what American President Donald Trump’s advisers are brushing under the carpet is that venture could land them back in the same mess that they had ended up in Afghanistan and from which they have only just pulled out.
Munir is now in direct touch with the Trump administration to cut a deal with the US for resource extraction, which could further alienate the local population and entangle Washington in a volatile domestic conflict.
According to an article published in the Times of Israel: “Donald Trump’s belief that Pakistan can be a source of rare earths and oil, what the US administration has chosen to leave out of the US President’s briefing is how difficult or impossible will this extraction be in areas such are Balochistan, Waziristan and Khyber Pakhtunwa which are hostile to Pakistani forces, where the Chinese have all but given up and due to whose hostility and support the US had to leave Afghanistan,”
If the US President were to continue along the path he seems to have charted, he will bring the US back to the same neighbourhoods that Joe Biden quickly abandoned, citing the Doha accords Trump himself had signed, the article by geopolitical expert Sergio Restelli states.
Other analysts have also highlighted that Balochistan has long been a flashpoint of ethnic and political unrest, exacerbated by perceptions of exploitation by foreign powers.
China’s heavy footprint in the region through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has already fuelled resentment. US involvement in resource extraction could further alienate local populations and entangle Washington in a volatile domestic conflict.
Restelli highlights that 15 years after Pakistan's 18th Amendment promised provincial ownership and control, provinces still watch as their wealth is extracted, revenues siphoned away, and communities left in poverty.
As KP is endowed with vast deposits of marble, granite, gemstones, chromite, and copper, the province should be flourishing. Instead, its natural wealth is systematically extracted to benefit federal interests, with minimal reinvestment in local infrastructure, education, or healthcare.
Balochistan is the most tragic case in Pakistan’s federal landscape. Despite being endowed with immense mineral wealth, including copper, gold, coal, and rare earth elements, it remains the country’s most impoverished and underdeveloped province.
Media reports also point out that Balochistan has long been a flashpoint of ethnic and political unrest, exacerbated by perceptions of exploitation by foreign powers. China’s heavy footprint in the region through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has already fuelled resentment.
“Now, Washington has entered the scene. President Trump has elevated critical minerals to a national-security priority, eyeing Pakistan’s rare earths as a way to reduce US dependence on China. Islamabad, desperate for foreign exchange, is eager to oblige. But the pattern is familiar: deals cut at the center, enforced by the military, and presented to locals as fait accompli,” the Times of Israel article states.
“History shows where this leads. Projects like Reko Diq and Saindak promised billions yet delivered displacement, pollution, and unrest. With US capital and political cover in the mix, the same extractive model will only tighten. The likely outcome is not development but repression -- villages fenced off, dissent criminalized, royalties delayed, and the army deployed in the name of strategic security. Anti-US anger will grow, because for communities on the ground, American partnership will look like American complicity,” the article adds.
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