Govt mulls over different options to set up CPEC Authority

ISLAMABAD: The government is contemplating upon different options including promulgation of a presidential ordinance for establishment of CPEC Authority to make this entity functional as soon as possible.

Ministry of Law has already vetted the proposed legislation and now it is up to the government to promulgate through presidential ordinance or table a bill before the parliament. The government might opt to establish CPEC Authority through issuance of an ordinance and then the process of getting approval of the parliament would be kick-started. It is not yet decided that who will be heading the CPEC Authority. The CPEC Secretariat and other forums would come under the jurisdiction of this upcoming CPEC Authority.

The Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a meeting to review CPEC projects here on Monday in which he instructed to make CPEC Authority functional and move towards resolving problems for 300 MW power project at Gawadar, finalizing ML-1 and removing bottlenecks in the way of Kohala hydropower projects as early as possible.

Top official sources told The News on Monday night that Ministry of Law vetted legislation for CPEC Authority and now summary would be tabled before the cabinet soon. The federal cabinet is scheduled to meet on Tuesday (today) but the summary of CPEC Authority is part of today’s meeting. It is expected that it will come under consideration in the next cabinet meeting.

The sources said that the premier directed the authorities concerned to streamline 300 MW power project for Gawadar as NEPRA had not yet determined its tariff. On ML-1 project, the PM directed to speed up work on three different tiers including finalizing of financing of project as well as its designing and phased approach. First of all, the government will have to decide whether it wants to go ahead with this project or not because without making up final mind it would be hard to execute such mega projects at atime when the country was under the IMF program.

On Kohala hydropower project, the premier asked the authorities to establish liaison with AJK government and resolve their genuine demands. The meeting also discussed the upcoming Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) under CPEC which is expected to be held in Islamabad in coming October 2019. On industrial cooperation, the establishment of special economic zone (SEZs) was on cards and it was emphasized upon that the progress should be made on this front to maximize benefits of CPEC.