- Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif, Petroleum Minister Shahid Abbasi, Railways Minister Saad Rafique and IPC Minister Riaz Pirzada not invited to even a single meeting on CPEC
- Opp leaders say CPEC being used by ruling Sharifs for political mileage as KP and Balochistan are yet to be satisfied on route of western corridor
While opposition parties are raising questions over ambiguities in the much-hyped China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), it seems that neither the opposition nor the ministers involved with the $46 billion project have been taken on board completely.
Politicians and bureaucrats involved in CPEC fear that it being used for political mileage by the federal government instead of being pushed forward as a national project aimed at achieving strategic goals for the future of the country.
Opposition and ruling parties passed a unanimous resolution demanding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif clearly take them into confidence over free economic zones for smaller provinces i.e. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. It seems many MPs on the treasury benches also share the concerns put forth by the opposition.
When contacted, PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said that the recently called All Parties Conference (APC) over CPEC had formed a committee that would meet the prime minister early next week to have a final meeting to clear all doubts.
Jhagra, who also attended the APCs summoned by JUI-F leader Fazlur Rehman and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, lauded the opposition’s stance, saying both APCs had supported the CPEC.
“It is a positive sign that even the opposition parties have no doubt about the prospects of CPEC. Rather, they all have said with one voice that CPEC is a game-changer for Pakistan. What they want is that this multi-billion-dollar project should be a win-win prospect for all the people of Pakistan,” he added.
Jhagra said that the APC had decided to form a committee with MPAs from all political parties, who would meet the PM for a detailed briefing.
“Since I am also a member of the committee, we hope that the meeting with the PM would help remove all doubts,” the senior PML-N leader said.
But suspicions over CPEC are not limited to the opposition only as some ministers also view the control of close Sharif aides over all CPEC projects with mistrust.
Moreover, opposition’s lawmakers are also getting jittery over how the federal government is concealing CPEC details.
“No details have yet been shared about where the free economic zones are going to be made and which areas would benefit the most,” said Shehryar Khan Afridi, the PTI MNA from Kohat, told Pakistan Today.
He alleged that the Sharifs wanted to extract all benefit from CPEC projects for themselves, while the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were being fooled with a link road which was being called CPEC’s “western route”.
“The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are not ready to be fooled anymore. If the ruling party would not do justice to us, PTI may call for major protests. We are not ready to allow Sharifs eat away the share of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” asserted the young lawmaker from the PTI.
JUI-F’s Fazlur Rehman also wants the government to take the smaller provinces into confidence over the detailed plans of the CPEC.
“We want the government to share all the details where the economic, energy and textile zones would be constructed. Otherwise, the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan would be justified to assume that they are not being given the western corridor as promised by the prime minister and rather they are being tricked with a road,” he added.
CPEC implementation is becoming a major challenge for Pakistan and China. While the Chinese part was completed around a year ago, it seems Pakistan is lagging far behind in rising to the challenge. Despite some messages of concern sent from China into Pakistan, nothing has changed on ground.
While there is much hullabaloo against the CPEC projects in Pakistan, Planning Commission Minister Ahsan Iqbal, PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Syed and Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong are the only people offering any clarifications to critics.
Although 83 per cent of the projects under CPEC are energy ventures, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has not been invited to attend even a single CPEC meeting. The minister has time and again expressed his anger publicly over the fact that he is kept at bay while all energy projects are being signed either by Punjab Chief Shehbaz Sharif or the ministry officials.
It is learnt that a prominent businessman, who is a relative of the chief minister, is acting as de-facto minister for water and power and takes all decisions. Even the PEPCO chief, who is practically dealing with most power generation plants, also reports to him.
So is the case with Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who has yet not attended even a single meeting of the JCC or joint working group.
The Ministry of Communications deals with the rest of the 17 per cent projects, which mostly are linked to infrastructure development. These projects are also facing delays as the prime minister is keeping this portfolio under his own belt.
Shahid Ashraf Tarar, who is a close relative of former president Rafiq Tarar and current Minister of State for Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar, has been given two top posts i.e. NHA chairman and secretary of the Communications Ministry. The man is reportedly quietly calling all shots taking directions from someone in the PM House.
Another factor which is hampering the facilitation process is that the active spirit in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMU), Dr Musadiq Malik, is now making efforts to bring under his control another special unit working in the Planning Commission called CPEC Secretariat.
The CPEC Secretariat at the Planning Commission is headed by Maj Gen (r) Zahir Shah, and is the only actively delivering body for CPEC coordination. It has no powers but coordination and correspondence between various ministries.
On the other hand, some PML-N leaders fear that the government has failed to identify local companies for collaboration in energy projects. They say Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Asif are being ignored in detailing transport and energy projects.
If CPEC projects face delays, the entire project might suffer and the costs involved may also rise, as in the case of the Nandipur Power Project. Moreover, any jeopardy to CPEC might also shatter the confidence of the foreign investors about the capacity and ability of Pakistan government to undertake such big flagship investments.
Observers say that the minister for inter-provincial coordination, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, should be included in the CPEC management team and he should be asked to take all provincial governments on board. Moreover, if the matter is not resolved, the matter might be taken to the Council of Common Interests (CCI), which is again the domain of Riaz Pirzada who has never been invited to any of the meetings of the JCC or joint working groups held either in China or in Pakistan.