Economic Corridor route changeLawyers body to hold convention

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) Bar Association is going to organise a lawyers’ convention at the national level in mid-March against alleged changes in the route of the Kashgar-Gwadar Economic Corridor.
Before organising the All Pakistan Lawyers Convention, the PHC Bar Association made contacts with political parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to persuade them to take up issue with the federal government.
“The PHC Bar Association has contacted the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami and opposition parties including Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) on the issue. All are united on the issue and have assured us that they would take it up with the federal government,” PHC Bar Association general secretary Muhammad Ayaz Khan told The News.
He said they had met JI chief Sirajul Haq, QWP head Aftab Sherpao and JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman.“We have also met provincial leadership of PTI and ANP to discuss the issue,” he said, adding that all the ruling and opposition parties were opposed to any change in the original route.
“The change in trade route is meant to deprive smaller provinces of an opportunity of development,” Ayaz Khan said, adding that invitation would be extended to all the political parties and civil society organisations.
In February, a meeting chaired by PHCBA president Essa Khan had called upon the federal government to restore the original route of the 2,000 kms long Gwadar-Kashgar Economic Corridor through Dera Ismail Khan and Mianwali instead of Multan and other areas of Punjab. The PHCBA general body said that the length of the route would increase by several hundred kilometres due to the changes in the route.
The meeting was convened at the request of Fata Lawyers Forum (FLF) president Ijaz Khan Mohmand.Talking to The News, the FLF president criticised the federal government for changing the route and said that Punjab instead of playing the role of an elder brother had often exploited the smaller provinces.
He said the same exploitative policies caused Pakistan’s dismemberment in 1971 and created a deep sense of deprivation among the smaller provinces. PHCBA general secretary Ayaz Khan said the ill-advised policies of the federal government had resulted in anti-state movements in the country. He said the original route passing through Dera Ismail Khan was the most secure against natural calamities but the revised one passing through Multan was prone to floods.
Another senior lawyer Noor Alam Khan said one of the reasons cited for changing the route was the poor security situation but those citing this reason ignored the fact that the top leaders of al-Qaeda were apprehended in Punjab. He said that under the Pakistan-China agreement, several industrial zones were being established in the proposed economic corridor and these would have benefited Balochistan and southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On the other hand, all political parties in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had also opposed any changes in the route of the Kashgar-Gwadar Economic Corridor and threatened resistance if the federal government chose the eastern route instead of the western one.
A joint resolution passed unanimously by the assembly called upon the federal government to initiate work on the western route of the corridor without making any changes to it. “This project will have positive effects on the economy of KP, Fata and underdeveloped areas of Balochistan and Punjab,” it said. It noted that aligning the economic corridor through another route via Punjab would be an injustice to the people of the underdeveloped KP, Fata and Balochistan.