PTI accuses federal govt of excluding western alignment from CPEC

PESHAWAR: Provincial leadership of the ruling Pakistan Teheek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday accused the federal government of excluding the western alignment from the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Addressing a seminar on the CPEC at the Nishtar Hall, which was organised by the Insaf Students Federation (ISF) PTI leaders, including provincial government spokesperson Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani and speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaiser urged the federal government to forthwith address the province’s concerns over the exclusion of the western route from project.

The PTI leaders came down hard on the federal government after accusing it of excluding western route from the CPEC project.

Asad Qaiser said the PTI-led government would never compromise on the rights of the province and it could not be at mere statements and pledges.

He said that Pakistan’s was federation of four provinces having equal rights and all the province deserved to be treated equally.

Asad Qaiser added that the federal government should not try to deceive people of the province by constructing an expressway on western route of project.

He said that he would approach courts after consulting other parties and lawyers.

Asad Qaiser said that like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh had also raised concerns over the project. The smaller federating units should not be deprived of the opportunities being offered by the mega project, he said.

He said that KP assembly had passed several resolutions demanding construction western economic corridor in the light of decision multiparty conference.

He said that 70 percent of the all projects are the limited to one province while the all other province totally ignored in the whole plans.

Mushtaq Ghani said it has become clear now that western route is not part of the CPEC project and the federal government allocated not funds for the portion which further strengthen concern of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regarding the western alignment.

He said that it was not China-Pakistan Economic Corridor but China Punjab Economic Corridor and statements of the federal government about the western route were not true.