PESHAWAR: Well-known gemstone market is troublesome to seek out for the unfamiliar ones, going by the bustling stalls and slender streets of Namak Mandi Bazaar. And it’s not only for instructions {that a} first-time customer ought to deliver alongside a information. To get the perfect offers, you should work with somebody who’s well-versed available in the market.
If the [gemstone] vendor believes the customer is simply wanting or window-shopping, he’s unlikely to disclose their best-quality stones.Ghulam Rabbani, a dealer and proprietor of Rabbani Gems and Minerals, advised this correspondent that even fellow businessmen are hesitant to share details about their gems.
“They are going to solely present you the gems if they’re satisfied that you’re a actual purchaser,” Rabbani elaborated, “as a result of they consider the stones will lose worth if proven to non-buyers.”Rabbani offers in Afghan Kunzite and Tourmaline stones which were minimize, polished, and bargained for in Peshawar.
“We export the stones to Thailand, the place merchants promote them regionally or to different international locations,” he mentioned.A Chinese language dealer named Ziyambo, who visited Peshawar a number of instances within the final 15 years, mentioned that he got here to the gemstone market with a information on the lookout for Quartz stone.
Shahzad, a talented gem cutter and polisher, was bent over his machine, with glasses on and a lightweight close to his brow. His household has been within the trade for greater than six many years.“My father was a gemologist,” he defined. “After we had been in school, my brothers and I used to work with him.”
Topaz, tourmaline, aquamarine, kunzite, and tapis had been among the many stones accessible in Shahzad’s store.He defined that merchants deliver uncooked stones from Afghanistan and varied elements of Pakistan; his job is to chop and polish them earlier than exporting them to international locations resembling america, the UK, and China.
In Peshawar, the federal government has established a Gems and Gemological Institute, the place college students are educated in three areas: gemology, faceting, and carving.An worker of the institute mentioned that the institute trains employees for the gemstone trade.
“We have now educated 1000’s of individuals for the reason that institute’s inception in 2001,” he mentioned, including that the institute want to ship its trainers overseas for superior coaching.In response to sources on the institute, it generates income by providing coaching programs and different actions.
