PM to satisfy all parliamentary leaders on CPEC on Thursday

ISLAMABAD: A conference of top parliamentary leaders to be chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday will most likely resolve the ‘controversy’, being created by some political parties about the route of the grand project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“I don’t think there will be any dispute whatsoever on the route after the forthcoming session,” a senior official source told The News. “Everyone realizes that the outstanding project, which will change the fate of Pakistan, should not be subjected to any inanity for political objectives.”
On May 13, the prime minister held a similar conference but had to be cut short due to the devastating Safoora tragedy. As a result, marathon deliberations could not be held on that day.
Political Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr Asif Kirmani confirmed to this correspondent that the meeting would be held as earlier announced. He said that in reality there was no controversy on the CPEC route and some elements are needlessly projecting it.
The source said that the prime minister has decided to continue the upcoming consultations till every kind of reservation and objection is taken care of and those raising unnecessary hue and cry are satisfied.
However, he said that there was no logic or reason behind kicking up dust and trying to fuel a controversy when Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal has repeatedly explained the actual position on the CPEC route.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak was certainly not normal when he said on Sunday that they won’t let the CPEC pass through the province if they were denied their share in the project. In the same breath he also said if KP does not get its due rights, there will be a fire across Pakistan.
It is unfortunate that a provincial chief minister has issued such a highly irresponsible statement just to make an unsuccessful effort to garner support for the May 30 local council elections in KP. He wants to whip up such kind of feelings for political reasons instead of attempting to fall back on his performance, which leaves much to be desired, to win the polls.
Khattak tried to match his rhetoric with that of the Awami National Party (ANP), which too is harping on the mantra of KP’s rights with the same purpose of salvaging its lost position in the local elections. ANP President Asfandyar Wali turned out to be too parochial when he stated that the CPEC route has been taken to Lahore, which was not in the original scheme. On the other hand the fact of the matter is that the CPEC covers the whole of Pakistan equally as the landmark project is not meant to benefit any single area.
However, he is alone in harping on this theme. National Party President Senator Hasil Bizenjo, who is a known nationalist leader, doesn’t share Asfandyar Wali’s views. He has stated that they neither see nor have any problem with the CPEC route. “Despite my repeated insistence in the May 13 session to those talking about change in original route, no one had ever come up with a clear-cut explanation as to where and how it has been altered.”
To propound his theory, the ANP chief has charged that the ‘changed’ CPEC route has bypassed the Pushtoon and Baloch belt. Bizenjo, who represents the Baloch belt, has no objection to the CPEC route.
He said that except Asfandyar Khan no one had raised any serious objection and added that the ANP chief was told to explain as to what change has been made and where precisely in the route but there was no answer to this.
“There were Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mehmood Achakzai, Aftab Sherpao and a few others but except Asfandyar Khan no one else objected to the government’s briefing on May 13,” he said, reminding that in the past he has been supporting the voices talking of change in the route. “We are satisfied and have no problem. There is need of connecting Gawdar Port with different parts of Pakistan to make it a great success.”
It has been decided that the Joint Cooperation Committee will be co-chaired by Ahsan Iqbal and Vice-Chairman National Development and Reforms Commission of China, which will overlook joint working groups for planning, energy, transport infrastructure and Gwadar.
Each working group corresponds to a component of the CPEC. The long-term plan will target development in Gwadar, including socio-economic development; the energy crisis, including power shortfall and poor transmission and distribution networks; infrastructure including road, rail, aviation and data connectivity; and industrial cooperation, which includes the setting up of industrial parks and economic zones.