This refers to the article, ‘Why Gwadar?’ (August 7) by Farrukh Saleem. The writer talks about Gwadar and how costly it will be for China to import oil through Gwadar. The article appears to be trying to ‘prove’ that it makes no economic sense for China to transport oil and other goods via Gwadar.
China has over the past three decades or so undergone an economic transformation that is as astonishing as it is remarkable. It is very easy for men and women who write in newspapers to question and criticise the actions of policymakers who actually do things – far easier to throw stones at those trying to build a better world than to do so oneself. This is especially true in a country such as ours where the gap between talk and action on the part of public policymakers is unfortunately very large. China has made truly incredible progress in lifting the economic standards of hundreds of millions of its people in a very short time. This was done according to conscious policy planning decisions and their implementation and did not simply just happen by itself. It, therefore, seems reasonable to assume that the Chinese architects of the CPEC do have some idea of what they are doing and that the project is not the economic nonsense that the writer seems to be trying to suggest it is.
Sher Ali Khan
Mardan