Coa lmining is supposed to be a macho occupation the world over. It is supposed to have been the basis of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, and there isv a mystique attached to it. But surely it is not supposed to be fatal. The recent flooding of a mine in Jhimpir, Thatta district, Sindh after flooding by rainwater trapped 40 miners, killing eight. Not so long ago, four miners in Quetta district had been killed because of the spread of poisonous gas after an explosion.
The pity is that these are all needless deaths. More the pity, coal mining in particular has been studied and its problems and difficulties are well known. It needs not be said that a careful safety and labour inspection regime should be followed. They are already present, and implementation is supposed to be part of the conditions of granting a lease. As all minerals are supposed to be the property of the provincial governments, they are only mined after the grant of leases for this purpose. Health and safety rules exist on paper, but can be ignored for a consideration. Mining is considered a lucrative business precisely becqause mine-owners can cut corns, with the fatal results that follow.
Coal mining has a msytique of its own, but it is vlearly in need of the kind of regulation that its operators are managing to avoid by methods as black and dirty as the mineral they mine. It could bbe argued that coal mining as a path to industrialization is not going to be very helpful in the present day and age, but there is still a need. Polluting as they are, coal-powered thermal generation plants have only now been set up, making this ancient mineral still the key to the country’s industrialization.
