No province to benefit from CPEC if KP kept deprived: Khattak

Says ‘big brother’ eating up everything leaving nothing for others

PESHAWAR: Referring to the alleged preference being given to Punjab in the multi-billion dollar project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak on Saturday said no province will get benefits from the project if KP did not get its right.

The chief minister said the ‘big brother’ ate up everything leaving nothing for others. He asked the federal government to ensure equal shares to all the provinces in the “game-changing” project.

Pervaiz Khattak was addressing a convention on the CPEC held at the Auqaf Hall and organised by the Olasi Tehreek. It was attended by leaders and representatives of all major political parties active in the province.

The chief minister said the elder brother (Punjab) would have to mend its ways while the Centre would also have to stop usurping the rights of smaller provinces.

He said the federal government is denying the rights of KP in more than one sector. “Rather, it is eating up the share of the province in hydropower generation and gas and now in the CPEC as well,” he maintained. He argued that the CPEC consisted of energy and infrastructure projects linking the neighbouring economies. “It will be an economic corridor between Pakistan’s Gwadar port and China’s western Xinjiang region having a network of roads, railways and pipelines, but the federal government is giving KP only two percent in these projects against its share of 13 percent,” he claimed.

“We will not beg for our rights. We know how to achieve our rights and we will go to any extent to this end,” he warned.

“The federal government is now saying it is constructing the western route. What will we do with that road passing through Hazara, Gilgit and Balochistan when it doesn’t include an optic fibre line, railway projects, LNG and energy projects, trade zones and industrial parks?” Pervaiz Khattak asked.

He remarked that gas, LNG, optic fibre and electricity projects would be included in the eastern route of the CPEC because it passed through Punjab. He said the western route would be 600 kilometres shorter “but even then the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led federal government is adamant on building the eastern route.

The chief minister also threw his support behind Balochistan in its demand for the building of the western route and said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would support Balochistan as the underdeveloped parts of both provinces were being ignored in the project. He warned that other provinces would not get anything out of the CPEC if the federal government continued to deprive KP of its due share in the project.

He alleged that the federal government was hiding facts and documents and agreements regarding the CPEC. “This would not augur well for the national economy and centre-provinces relations,” he stressed.

Pervaiz Khattak accused the Centre of stealing 600 megawatts of electricity daily from the share of KP in the distribution system from the national grid.

He pointed out that there was no end to the federal government’s injustice to KP. “The federal government is not issuing no-objection certificates to the investors to invest in the province,” he maintained. The chief minister said the federal government made promises with the provinces only to break them and take no practical step to ensure the rights of the provinces.

KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Senior Minister Sikandar Sherpao from the Qaumi Watan Party, Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) MPAs Saeed Gul and Muhammad Ali, Olasi Tehreek chairman Dr Said Alam Mehsud, Awami Workers Party leader Fanoos Gujjar, representatives of different political parties and members of civil society organisations attended the convention.

Other speakers also asked the federal government to give a due share to the smaller provinces, particularly the terrorism-hit KP.

They vowed to raise a voice for the rights of Pakhtuns and jointly fight against the injustice. They pledged to make no compromise on the rights of the people of the province. The speakers announced to collectively launch a movement for the rights of KP.