Pakistan Military chief, Area Marshal Asim Munir, has strengthened the navy’s management within the financial decision-making course of and cracked down on the native civilian inhabitants to make sure entry to the mining areas within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) area bordering Afghanistan, in response to media experiences.
The dual steps have been undertaken to lure US corporations to spend money on the area with the carrot of mining in crucial minerals and hydrocarbons, highlighting curiosity in lithium and uncommon earth deposits within the KP and Gilgit-Baltistan areas. The Donald Trump administration seems to have fallen for Munir’s sport plan because it seems for various sources for uncommon earth metals past China.
Nevertheless, the growing unrest within the area following one other navy crackdown in July, which is reported to have displaced near 100,000 civilians within the Pashtun-speaking area, spells additional bother for any investments made within the area.
“Munir launched into a undertaking that fused navy operations, refugee expulsions, and useful resource management right into a single agenda. At its centre lies KP, which is wealthy in minerals and strategically positioned. It is usually house to thousands and thousands of Pashtuns and Afghan refugees who’ve turn out to be the collateral injury of a militarised growth mannequin more and more formed by worldwide demand,” in response to an article by journalist Uzay Bulut revealed in PJ Media.
“In July 2025, the military launched Operation Sarbakaf in Bajaur. The offensive imposed curfews on total cities and displaced practically 100,000 civilians inside days. Girls and youngsters had been amongst these killed within the shelling. The occasion fuelled native fears that such operations serve much less to fight militancy than to depopulate districts earmarked for useful resource corridors,” the article states.
The escalation in bother in KP comes on prime of the unrest that’s already sweeping by means of adjoining Balochistan and is anticipated to plunge Pakistan into deeper turmoil.
The sharp rise in violence concentrating on Chinese language employees and infrastructure initiatives in Pakistan during the last three years seems to be an indicator of what US corporations are headed for within the area. For Common Munir, it’s a means of getting extra funds to run cash-strapped Pakistan, which is saddled by an financial system that’s on the point of collapse.