Ahsan says govt to build Western route on priority

Removing KP CM’s concern on CPEC

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to remove concern of KP chief minister on $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said the government would build western route, passing through backward areas of KP and Balochistan on priority basis.

Federal Minister Planning, Development & Reform Ahsan Iqbal on Friday made a telephone call to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak on his reservations regarding China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The KP CM had warned the federal government for taking extreme steps if concerns were not removed of the PTI-led provincial government. But the CM did not share details of his extreme steps.

Keeping in view concerns of KP, the minister told him that he would be personally visiting Peshawar by next week to apprise the provincial government about the steps taken by the Center to make CPEC a success story in collaboration with all stakeholders.

During the conversation, Ahsan Iqbal said that CPEC is a national project and all the provinces would reap its benefits. “The federal government can’t think of discriminating with KP on CPEC,” he added.

He assured that the federal government would fulfill the commitment made at All Parties Conference (APC) in May, 2015 and would build Western route passing through backward areas of KP and Balochistan on priority basis. The federal government firmly believes that CPEC gave us historic opportunity to develop backward areas socially and economically.

He assured the CM that the federal government was ready to redress all the doubts and misunderstandings of the KP viz-a-viz CPEC.

The CM expressed his concerns over increased share of Punjab in CPEC projects. The minister explained that it was initiative of the provincial government of Punjab and doors were not closed for KP if the province was ready to get foreign investment from China as well as other countries. “We are ready to assist you for getting funding from foreign countries if you are able to come up with bankable projects,” the sources quoted him as saying during his conversation with the CM of KP.