Chairman Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Senator Mushahid Hussain has said that the government has accepted his committee’s proposals for the inclusion of Keti Bunder and FATA in the CPEC.
Speaking at a day-long conference on CPEC, organised by Islamabad based think-tank Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) on Monday, he said that the committee had been advocating that lesser developed areas of the country should benefit more from this unprecedented development opportunity.
In this regard, he said the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC proposed the government to include the Keti Bunder and troubled-hit FATA in the game-changer project, which have been accepted by the government.
The parliamentary committee chief further said that FATA Reforms Committee had agreed to give FATA a role in CPEC.
The conference, which was attended by representatives of academia, think tanks, diplomatic corps and media, aimed at analysing the potential benefits of the mega infrastructure cum communications project for both Pakistan and China.
The participants of the seminar also looked into the regional and global implications of CPEC and the strategies for dealing with the challenges that have so far been confronted or are expected to come up in future.
The sixth meeting of Pak-China Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC), the principal decision making and implementation forum for CPEC, is scheduled to be held in China on December 28-29. The focus of the meeting would be on industrial investment cooperation and new transportation projects including Keti Bunder Port, Airport in Thar (Islamkot) and the next phase of Karakoram Highway.
Senator Mushahid said Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah would be attending the JCC meeting where he would plead for the new projects in his province, including a port in Keti Bunder and airport in Islamkot.
The JCC is represented on the Chinese side by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, while Planning and Development Division is the lead ministry for Pakistan. The last meeting of JCC was held in Karachi in November.
Chinese Charge d’Affaires Mr Zhao Lijian on the occasion expressed satisfaction at the pace of progress of CPEC projects. He said the upcoming JCC would focus on industrial investment cooperation under which an industrial zone would be established in every province.
He rejected the criticism about the coal projects being undertaken under CPEC and said international environmental standards were being complied.
The Chinese diplomat hoped that load shedding in Pakistan would end once the energy projects reach completion, as energy, he recalled, was recognised as a priority under CPEC.
President SVI Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said CPEC projects have given a fresh momentum to the trusted relations between China and Pakistan. This, he observed, not only added substance to the bilateral strategic ties but also opened up vast geostrategic avenues and possibilities for the two countries in particular and the region in general.