The Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on Thursday approved the rules of procedures of the CPEC committee as well as the proposed Work Plan, which includes details on briefings, site visits and other activities between October 2015 and March 2016.
At the outset, Senator Mushahid Hussain said that the committee would work above party and provincial lines to promote the national objective of building the CPEC with consultation and consensus. He said that the committee was a product of the May 28 All Parties Conference (APC) meeting held at the PM House. Hussain stated that the western route would be given top priority because the CPEC has to be a corridor of national unity bringing peace and prosperity to all provinces particularly the less developed areas of KP and Balochistan.
In his comprehensive briefing, Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal, who is also the Focal Person on CPEC from the Pakistani side, said that work had already begun on the Western route of the CPEC and he said that the area from Gwadar to Sorab which would link Gwadar with Quetta and which had involved new construction of 650 km was already being constructed and it would be completed by December 2016. The rest of the Western route, which will link Gwadar with Kashgar, China, through Balochistan and KP, is 2,518 km in length and construction of the Western route is already underway in accordance with the decision of the APC held on May 28 this year. He also focused on projects under the CPEC pertaining to transport and infrastructure, Gwadar Port, energy and the proposed industrial parks and new economic zones.
Mushahid also announced that the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC would visit the sites of the CPEC in November, including Gwadar and the Western route of the CPEC.
