Democracies do not fear debates
COAS Qamar Bajwa has called for an open debate on all aspects of the CPEC so that policies best suited for the country could be framed. The seminar where he spoke was held in Islamabad at a time when Ahsan Iqbal, the focal person for CPEC, was fully engaged in defending the Prime Minister. The holding of the seminar sends a message that there are institutions which continue to look after the mega project.
There was always a need to call meetings of the local stake holders and academia to seek inputs on CPEC. Businessmen at the seminar highlighted problems like the outdated trucking system, lack of trained manpower, and logistics industry required to deal with seven different ministries. It was suggested that the government create a single ministry to deal with transport, uniform border management, custom clearance and related standards. An academic from a prestigious university underlined some of the weaknesses in the government machinery and warned that problems could emerge from imbalances in Pak-China trade and balance of payment challenges. He referred to problems created by Chinese investment in other countries, suggesting how to avoid them. The army chief put greater focus on education, training and skill development – as well as improvement in existing laws and regulations for facilitating trade, investment and infrastructure development. Industrial and urban development, he said, was needed for transforming “the trade corridors into economic corridors”. There is a need to hold more seminars to review various aspects of the CPEC and seek proposals for removing hindrances to make the project more beneficial for Pakistan.
The CPEC is being provided security by the army which has brought down terrorist incidents in Balochistan. Despite the arrest of Indian spy Jadhav, however, terrorist attacks continue to take place in the province. Two Chinese were kidnapped in May and later killed. Last month 13 died in a terrorist incident including seven policemen. During the last four days two senior police officers along with other personnel were killed by terrorists. Much more needs to be done to dent the terrorist onslaught.