Mushahid-led body briefed on CPEC Phase-1

ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Monday was briefed on its Phase-1 that entails a security and development plan for Gwadar at the cost of Rs3.4 billion. It directed the Ministry of Planning and Development to furnish details of the plan and the breakup of the cost in various sectors.

The Committee decided to recommend to the government to include agricultural sector in the CPEC. It has also decided to visit Sindh next month to inspect power projects in Thar and Port Qasim.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed chaired the meeting in which Secretary Planning and Development made a briefing. The members discussed in detail various aspects of the projects, their progress with reference to Gwadar which is the starting point of CPEC.

Mushahid in his remarks assured the members that “all the reservations of the local inhabitants of Gwadar would be addressed and resolved and the rights of the people of Gwadar as well as the people of Balochistan would be promoted and protected.”

The Committee got a briefing in detail about decision taken on 15 different items which include energy, road projects and Gwadar. Mushahid said the CPEC was a strategic national project, the most important in the country’s history since the nuclear programme and the CPEC was vital for Pakistan’s future prosperity by knitting the federation together through progress in the smaller provinces, particularly the less developed areas.

He cited the example of Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtoonkhaw and welcomed representatives of Gilgit Baltistan, who attended as special invitees. The committee was briefed that in phase-1, there was a security and development plan being developed in Gwadar at the cost of Rs3.4 billion and the committee directed the Ministry of Planning and Development  to furnish details of the plan and the breakup of the cost in various sectors.

Senator Mushahid also briefed the Committee on CPEC Media Forum which was held in Islamabad last month, an effort to develop the CPEC specific website as well as his meeting with former Chief Minister Balochistan Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who was invited to attend the All-Parties Conference on Gwadar which Sardar Akhtar Mengal convened on January 10.

Mushahid told the committee that he would attend the APC of Sardar Akhtar Mengal. He informed the committee that he would visit Khyber Pukhtoonkhaw on December to brief KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak on the CPEC and the working of the Parliamentary committee on CPEC.

Senator Fateh Muhammad Hassani said that he had been a member of the parliament since 1985 and he found the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC was ‘the most effective and competently run Parliamentary committee that I have witnessed during his long parliamentary career.’

Mushahid said that the first quarterly report of the committee was ready for presentation in the Parliament and he requested Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt General (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch to present it in the National Assembly.

The Committee also directed the Ministry of Water and Power to respond in full to the questions raised by Asad Umar by December 21. The meeting offered Fateha for the mother of Additional Secretary Qamar Suhail Lodhi who died last week. 

Abdul Qadir Baloch, Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, Sardar Awais Leghari, Dr Ibadullah, Isphanyar Bhandara, Aijaz Jakhrani, Asad Umar, Ghous Bux Mahar, Alhaj Shahji Gul Afridi, Senator Fateh Mohammd Hassani, Senator Salahuddin Tirmizi, Senator Shibli Faraz, Senator Telha Mehmood, Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo and Secretary National Assembly Muhammad Riaz attended the meeting.