Imran foresees trouble if concerns of KP, Balochistan not addressed

CPEC route controversy

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan fears it would jeopardise the unity of the federating units if the federal government didn’t address the concerns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan before launching the much-publicised $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). “We are in favour of the CPEC project, but we would never like  to damage the unity of the federating units,” he said during an informal chat with a group of Peshawar-based journalists at his Bani Gala residence here.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Advisor on Information Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and PTI leader Naeemul Haq were present on the occasion.

Imran Khan held the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership responsible for creating confusion and making the CPEC project controversial.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his two sons along with him during his official foreign visits.

“Nawaz Sharif has never taken KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak or any other chief minister along during his foreign trips. He is the prime minister of Pakistan, not Punjab,” he stressed.

He said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the CPEC was signed in January 2013, but there was still ambiguity about the project. He complained that the PML-N leaders and the federal government had kept them in the dark.

Imran Khan claimed the federal government was reluctant to show them the copy of the agreement.

He said Nawaz Sharif had announced on May 28, 2015 that the western route of the project would be built first. “The prime minister has now deviated from his previous stance,” he maintained.

Imran and Pervez Khattak didn’t agree when reminded about the general impression that the PTI leadership had engaged itself, along with their Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, in dharna in Islamabad when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was frequently visiting China to discuss this important economic project.

He said the federal government should begin work on the western route of the project passing through the underdeveloped areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan with all its services and facilities. “It is the only way to remove the hurdles in the way of CPEC,” he added.

Imran Khan said the western route was 300 kilometres shorter and would cost lesser amount.He alleged that the PML-N leadership had created misunderstanding about the different routes of economic corridor.

“There is only one route and that is the Western route, which was originally supposed to pass through KP, Punjab and Balochistan along with establishment of industrial zones and oil and gas pipelines. However, the PML-N leadership is now trying to misguide the people. Pakistan is not a golden sparrow where China would like to spend too much money,” Imran Khan maintained.

He said the people of the four federating units should be informed that the Chinese were giving a loan of $46 billion, not making any investment, to Pakistan and the entire nation would need to return it. “The whole nation has to return the loan so the money should be spent as per aspirations of the people of the four federating units,” he demanded. However, he said the way this $46 billion was being planned to be spent, it would serve 80 percent of Punjab’s interests only.

He said Nawaz Sharif was pursuing the CPEC keeping in mind the 2018 general election.“I am not against the interests of Punjab as we have won many seats from there, but we would not allow any injustice to other federating units,” the PTI chairman vowed.

Blaming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for bypassing the parliament while making key decisions of national interests, the PTI leader said the premier had on his own joined the 34-member coalition of Arab countries.

“The Iranian ambassador in Islamabad told me the 34-member coalition hasn’t been formed for fighting terrorism. It was formed to fight us. It means we didn’t learn a lesson from our mistakes in the past,” Imran Khan said.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said he would go to any extent but would not allow anyone to usurp the rights of KP.

He said the federal government was reluctant to pay Rs120 billion gas royalty to the province.He claimed that 13 percent of KP’s share in power was daily stolen. He said the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) was not interested in overcoming the issue of loadshedding.

Pervez Khattak said the federal government termed the project expensive and refused to provide funds for what he termed “highly-important.”

He added that the Chashma Right Bank Canal would irrigate thousands of acres of barren land in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank and other southern districts and would make KP self-sufficient in food.