China pleased with CPEC’s progress

LAHORE: A Chinese delegation on Thursday praised Punjab Chief Shahbaz Sharif for efficient execution of the CPEC projects.

The remarks came as a delegation led by National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) MD Li Xuedong met Shahbaz and discussed progress on the ongoing CPEC projects, industrial park and cooperation in other sectors.

Xuedong appreciated the chief minister and his team on working with unprecedented speed, as he especially cited the completion of Sahiwal Coal Power Project and expressed his pleasure over the hard work and determination with which progress is being made on CPEC projects in Punjab.

He said the results of CPEC projects were of paramount importance and the credit of achievements went to the chief minister’s leadership. The visiting dignitary said Shahbaz had played a prominent role in strengthening the Pak-China friendship. “Pakistan and China are strategic partners in the journey of progress and prosperity,” he noted.

He said that CPEC was a flagship project of ‘Belt and Road’ and implementation of these projects was materialising the dream of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

On the occasion, Shahbaz said the leadership of Pakistan and China had written a new history and working as a team, adding that CPEC had emerged as a successful model for the world. Separately, Ijaz-ul-Haq MNA and Shahbaz discussed matters of mutual interest and the political situation prevailing in the country.

During the meeting, the chief minister criticised the elements practicing negative politics at the cost of public welfare and said the “sit-in party” conspired during the last four years to obstruct development work but all the conspiracies remained unsuccessful. 

He said the elements indulging in negative politics of agitation and chaos were afraid of development in the country and also intended at creating hurdled in executing CPEC. Shahbaz noted that the chaos in the name of changing the country’s destiny was against national interest and the conscious people had refused to become part of negative agenda.

Similarly, the ruling party MNA, Sardar Awais Leghari, also met Shahbaz to discuss political issues and the programmes relating in southern Punjab.

The chief minister said he had been personally supervising development projects in southern Punjab, adding that more resources were reserved in the annual development programme as compared to the region’s population.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz has directed the Provincial Cabinet Committee on Floods to make necessary arrangements with regard to the monsoon season and directed the relevant departments to remain fully alert.

He stressed the need for better coordination among the provincial and federal agencies and said repair and maintenance work of river embankments should be completed as soon as possible.

On the other hand, the chief minister, in a statement, strongly condemned the assassination of SP Mubarak Shah and other police officials in Quetta. He expressed deep sense of sorrow and grief over the incident and said the people embracing martyrdom in the line of duty were national heroes.