ISLAMABAD: In addition to $46 billion plan for investment in Pakistan, China and Asian Development Bank (ADB) will jointly co-finance main railway line (ML-1) by providing $8 billion concessional loans to upgrade and modernise its route from Peshawar to Karachi over next five years period, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said.
The minister also dwelt upon Indian aggression on Line of Control (LoC) and said that war hysteria needed to be replaced to wage war against poverty, backwardness and lack of education and health facilities for inhabitants of this part of the world. About claims of surgical strike made by Indian army, Ahsan Iqbal said that it seemed script of Bollywood movie as Pakistan fully possessed capability to give befitting responce to any aggression.
“China and ADB will provide $5.5 billion and $2.5 billion respectively to finance up-gradation of ML-1 from Peshawar to Karachi over next 5 to six years, enhancing speed from 80km to 160km per hour. The concession loan will be provided at less than 2 percent markup but final negotiation on modalities of concessional loans will be done by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD). In CPEC, they had already incorporated $3.6 billion for Pakistan Railways so net addition would be around $5 billion,” Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said while addressing news conference here at P Block on Thursday after his return from China.
The minister said that Pakistan was fully prepared to give befitting response to Indian aggression and New Delhi was fully aware about Pakistan’s capabilities on defence front. South Asia lagged behind on many front so there is need to avoid war hysteria and wage war against poverty, backwardness and ignorance. “We are optimistic that India will not take any irresponsible step on this front,” he added.
On CPEC, the minister said that Steering Committee under chairmanship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would hold its next meeting soon as it was delayed because of premier’s visit for attending United Nations General Assembly meeting in USA.
The minister said that the army and civilians were on one page related to CPEC, and there was no concern expressed by military on composition of steering committee on CPEC. The minister came down hard on media and said that organised campaign was launched on social media as well as other mode of communication by spreading irresponsible rumours against CPEC.
The minister said that China and Pakistan decided to hold next Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) by last week of November this year and Joint Working Groups on transport, Gwadar port and industrial cooperation would meet before the upcoming JCC meeting.
The CPEC, he said, was long term framework from 2014 to 2030 in which China and multilateral donor agencies would participate to undertake multi- billion dollar projects. He said that the ML-1 up-gradation would enable it to cater needs of fast train tracks of future requirements. He said that he would meet ANP leadership by next week in order to apprise them that work on western route was under way which would be completed by 2018.
He said that Gwadar-Quetta link would be completed by December 2016 while Gwadar-Rato Dero would also be connected. He said that Gwadar port city projects, including expressway would be financed through concessionary financing from China and its details would be finalised soon.
The minister said that the government decided to abandon 300MW coal power project for Gwadar and now LNG plus fuel based 100MW projects would be installed to cater the requirements of the port city.
He also said that other CPEC energy projects, including 1320MW at Port Qasim, Sahiwal coal project, Thar coal projects and others would be completed within stipulated time-frame. The Lahore-Matiari transmission line, he said, would be completed as parleys on tariff with Chinese company were under way to resolve the controversy amicably.
To a query regarding ECC approval for incorporating 1 percent cost charging from consumers for ensuring security of CPEC projects, the minister said that it was done to ensure foolproof security, but it would not hike overall average cost of produced electricity from existing plants.
The minister said that the federal government was not executing metro and orange line projects in Punjab, but the provincial government was managing its projects from its own resources. The federal government is financing only one mass transit project which is located in Karachi with total estimated cost of Rs16 billion out of which Rs8 billion were already released by the Planning Commission.
To a query about permitting Musharraf to go abroad and his announcement to quit politics, the minister said that he had declared to quit his ministerial portfolio and politics if Musharraf was allowed to go abroad without getting permission from the court of law.
About viability of Sahiwal coal project, the minister said that Pakistan Railways would be responsible for transportation of imported coal to the location of power plants and they were going to purchase new wagons to ensure its smooth supply.
About Planning Commission members, he said that they were given extension up to October 30, 2016, but hiring of recruiting process of new members would be completed till then in order to ensure stopgap arrangement.
