- Remove lacunas but safeguard the project
It is significant that differences with China over certain projects under the CPEC have arisen at a time when Pakistan is already under direct and indirect pressures from the US. There is all the more reason therefore to resolve differences with China which is Pakistan’s strongest strategic bulwark with sensitivity and a friendly spirit.
The secretiveness maintained about the crucial details of the CPEC by the PML-N government which had presented the project as China’s gift to Nawaz Sharif’s government led the PML-N’s opponents to raise questions that would not have arisen had there been sufficient transparency. When launching the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with CPEC as its marquee project, the Chinese government too failed to take into account the electoral dynamics of the project’s partner countries. China is therefore facing problems with the change of governments in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan.
The PTI government which has inherited a back breaking debt is wary of further getting into the debt trap. What must not however be forgotten is that IMF and ADB alone are behind 46 percent of the present debt. More debt is no doubt bound to be added when undertaking power-cum-communication projects requiring investment of billions of dollars. It needs to be underlined however that after the CPEC projects enter into operation they are expected to give a big boost to the production of exportable industrial goods enabling Pakistan to pay off its debts. These projects have already generated 70,000 jobs.
The CPEC being a long gestation project, it must not be allowed to suffer from tinkering on the part of every new party that comes to power. Unlike its forerunners, the PTI must take the PPP and PML-N on board about the problems related to the CPEC to formulate a uniform policy that should be followed irrespective of who is ruling the country.
That the US is deadly opposed to BRI and CPEC as they increase China’s influence in the region is no more a secret. Pakistan must not bow down to pressure on the issue. The PTI government meanwhile needs to be cautious about the US lobby in Pakistan which is more interested in grinding its own axe than safeguarding people’s interest.