ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate has said that the issue of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is political and it must be addressed politically not through officials (bureaucrats).
Senator Farhatullah Babar has said this during the briefing by National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar on the alignment of the CPEC. The NHA head stated that the alignment of the CPEC from Khunjerab to Gwadar via Mianwali, DI Khan, DG Khan, Khuzdar and Turbat is only long-term. In the short term, the new alignment from Khunjerab to Gwadar was being undertaken so as to utilise the existing communication network and to operationally the Gwadar port, he said.
Farhatullah Babar said that the decision about the Economic Corridor’s alignment is a political decision and has to be addressed at a political level; it cannot be addressed by bureaucrats attending today’s meeting.
The basic issue in deciding the alignment is whether any weight age is given to national harmony and integrity by connecting the less developed areas of all provinces including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and tribal areas to the economic corridor, he said. This was a political and not technical issue, he said.
Babar said the original route was aimed at connecting underdeveloped areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to the corridor, but with adoption of the new alignment the areas would remain ignored.
The Senator asked three specific questions so that the Parliament could take it up at a higher political level. 1. What additional uplift projects will require to be completed and at what additional total cost if the initially planned route namely Mianwali, DI Khan, DG Khan, Khuzdar and Turbat is followed? A list of the roads infrastructure projects already available along the initially planned route should be made available. 2. How much of the additionally required infrastructure has already been included in the PSDP so as to get a clear picture of the actual cost of the new works to be undertaken? 3. How much time will it take to make the originally planned route fully operational? As for the operationalization of Gwadar port is concerned it will become operational after the opening of Rattadero Gwadar road which the Chairman NHA has said will be completed by May this year, he said. It was decided that the NHA will give its replies to these questions in one week.
It is pertinent to mention here that the economic corridor is a vital project for the prosperity of Pakistan as China is investing billions of dollars. In 2014, Chinese government announced that it will finance Chinese companies to build $45.6 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan as part of CPEC. China has also promised to invest around $33.8 billion in various energy projects and $11.8 billion in infrastructure projects which will be completed by 2017 at most. The deal includes $622 million for Gwadar port. Under the CPEC agreement, $15.5 billion worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will add 10,400 megawatts of energy to the national grid of Pakistan.
