‘Economic corridor alignment a political issue’

ISLAMABAD: Senator Farhatullah Babar Friday raised concerns over the alignment of the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) saying that the decision about the Corridor’s alignment is a political one. He added that the issue had to be addressed politically and not by bureaucrats.
“The basic issue in deciding the alignment is whether any weightage is given to national harmony and integrity by connecting the less-developed areas of all the provinces including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and tribal areas to the Economic Corridor. This was a political and not a technical issue,” he said while speaking in a meeting of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee held with its Chairman Haji Adeel in the chair. In the meeting, NHA chairman gave briefing on the issue of alignment of the proposed CPEC.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the NHA chairman had candidly stated that the alignment of the CPEC from Khunjerab to Gwadar via Mianwali, DI Khan, DG Khan, Khuzdar and Turbat was a long term project. “In the short term, according to NHA, the new alignment from Khunjerab to Gwadar was being undertaken to utilise the existing communication network and to operationalise the Gwadar port,” he said.
He said that once the new alignment became operational, it would be impossible to revert to the initially planned alignment via DI Khan and DG Khan. ”Thus for all practical purposes, the new alignment will become final and irrevocable,” he added.
Farhatullah Babar also asked three specific questions so that the Parliament could take it up at a higher political level.He questioned what additional uplift projects would require to be completed and at what additional total cost if the initially planned route namely Mianwali, DI Khan, DG Khan, Khuzdar and Turbat was followed. “A list of the roads infrastructure projects already available along the initially planned route should be made available,” he opined.
Second, Senator Farhatullah Babar questioned how much of the additionally required infrastructure had already been included in the PSDP to get a clear picture of the actual cost of the new projects to be undertaken.
Third, he questioned how much time it would take to make the originally planned route fully operational. “As for the operationalisation of Gwadar port is concerned, it will become operational after the opening of Ratodero-Gwadar Road which, according to the NHA chairman, will be completed by May this year,” he suggested.It was decided in the meeting that the NHA would give reply to the questions in one week.