The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is the unprecedented gift of modern diplomacy and friendship, a policy which Islamabad had been pursuing for years. However, the government needs to keep balance in relations and should not compromise on honor and dignity of the nation at any stage of its negotiations with Beijing. According to newspaper reports, Pakistan seeks Chinese help to establish four industrial zones in the first phase of the corridor project. China has already planned to set up three industrial zones but Pakistan insists on another industrial zone to ‘equally distribute the benefits of the corridor among the four provinces’. There are not two opinions that China is trusted friend of Pakistan, but in reality, national interests matter and political rhetoric are considered part of diplomacy. The country has four provinces and many federally administered territories beside an independent region Azad Kashmir. In fact, it is not the matter of four provinces as every part of the country is important and needs to be involved in the economic activities.
The most important homework needs to do at this stage is to suggest suitable places for the proposed industrial zones. The policymakers in provinces need to do overtime to suggest sites without indulging in political controversies. Indian Raw agency is also working overtime to sabotage the project of international importance and is funding billions of dollar to its agents in Pakistan to foil the establishment of economic corridor. The Indian agency is especially focusing on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to spread hatred and fuel anti-Pakistan sentiments in the country. Some of the elements have already been expressing reservations on the route of the corridor without realizing that it will send wrong signals to the Chinese government. However, the government should also take a step forward to remove genuine apprehensions of the people. As a matter of fact, the economic corridor is the first step toward regional integration and many such projects are on the way. Instead of creating controversies on the corridor, the parliamentarians should insist on the development of infrastructure in their respective areas to make them accessible to the economic corridor.
The government should also classify certain industries as integral part of the industrial zones. Technology is changing every day and the country needs to change its image from a raw material supplier to a producer of value added and hi-tech goods. As electricity generation is part of the economic corridor project, it will be plausible to encourage the establishment of both traditional and non-traditional industries in the industrial zones. Apart from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir also needs attention and it also be made part of the economic activities.
