Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Monday has criticised an article published in Dawn claiming to be an “original plan of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)”.
Furthermore the national daily also claimed that the documents have been made available to the public for the first time. The article claimed to reveal “what Chinese intentions and priorities are in Pakistan for the next decade and a half, details that have not been discussed in public thus far.”
Iqbal, severely condemned the article stating it to be “Dawn Leaks II.” “I am appalled by Dawn Leak II. CPEC long-term plan story based on working documents to distort final draft taken up with NDRC yesterday in Beijing,” the planning minister said in a tweet.
I am appalled by Dawn Leak II. CPEC Long Term Plan story based on working docs 2 distort final draft taken up with NDRC yesterday in Beijing
— Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) May 15, 2017
Iqbal went on to add that Dawn had not contacted him or the ministry to confirm the facts. He further stated in a tweet that this is an attempt to defame the CPEC by promoting fears.
CDB study referred to as Long Term Plan in Dawn story is factually incorrect. Definite angling in story to malign CPEC by promoting fears.
— Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) May 15, 2017
Iqbal further mentioned in a tweet that the long-term plan could not have been disclosed by Pakistani government without consulting the Chinese. He called the Dawn story “half cooked” in a race to break the news first.
We couldn’t release LTP without final consultation with Chinese side which was done yesterday. In race for breaking news half cooked story.
— Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) May 15, 2017
Pakistan inked new agreements worth nearly $500 million with China on Saturday ahead of Beijing’s international forum on its “Silk Road” trade and infrastructure initiative for Asia, Africa and Europe, the Pakistani government informed. The agreements signed add to the existing $57 billion portfolio already pledged for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a network of rail, road and energy infrastructure that is part of the wider Chinese project also known as the Belt and Road initiative, or One Belt, One Road.
CPEC is a historic USD46 billion investment of China in Pakistan which entails construction of various development projects connecting the country to bigger OBOR.
Last year in October, the daily had published a story that claimed of a confrontation between the civil and military leadership in a meeting of the National Security Committee in Islamabad.
The daily received flak from the government and the military for not being remotely close to the truth, however, the paper stood by the story and claimed that it was published after confirmation of multiple sources.
In the aftermath, echoes of which are still heard in the parliament and press conference of the lawmakers, Special Assistant of the PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi was relieved of his services.
Fatemi denied feeding the story to any media outlet and asserted in his farewell speech in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that he never released any information, concerning the government, to media all through his career.