Fate changer?
PML-N clearly prepared the APC script well. Differences have diminished and everybody is on board for what the international press has begun calling a ‘fate changer’ for the region. There should be fewer doubts now among those naysayers. Pervez Khattak must have been pleased after Ahsan Iqbal recommended a working group representing all four provinces to ‘make recommendations’ about the route. And Khurshid Shah would have told a relieved Asif Zardari that the prime minister promised transparency on all matters concerning the Corridor. The government, too, must be happy that a big hurdle is out of the way and on-ground work can finally begin.
But the proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Nawaz – or his party, at least – has a history of tampering with otherwise very useful projects. And the cost-benefit ratio is sometimes greatly skewed if you do to a development project what the Nawaz government did to the Lahore-Islamabad motorway. Such interference leaves senior party members much wealthier, but neither the people nor the exchequer gain much. It didn’t help, of course, that Nawaz tried to shroud this project in an air of mystery as well. That explains the angst among those who have known Nawaz and his friends the longest. However, it seems from the APC that the motorway lesson, at least, has been learnt well, and there will be no repeat performance.
Surely all the controversy about the route would not have gone unnoticed in Beijing. President Xi is definitely a statesman with a great vision not just for his country, but for the entire region. His plan focuses on exploiting potentially positive linkages across the continent, which is why he has gone out of the way to make peace with all rivals, and encouraged others to do the same. Of course, it is not just by luck that Pakistan is at the centre of this great vision. We now shoulder a great responsibility. But if our politicians will let their old sense of personal indulgence get the better of them, they will not just rob their own people of a truly historic opportunity, but also hurt ‘all weather friends’. Hopefully the APC will be followed in letter and spirit and the fate of the entire region will change for the better.