Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said agreement of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is confidential and cannot be made public.
“Agreement of the economic corridor with China is sensitive and it cannot be disclosed,” Iqbal said in the Senate session.
However, the minister handed over a sealed copy of the CPEC agreement to Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani and asked the members to examine the agreement in the chamber of the chairman if they wished to do so.
Earlier Chairman Senate Rabbani, on the request of members of the Senate on Wednesday, directed the federal government to present the agreement of CPEC before the Senate, as some senators were of the view that the government is providing advantages of CPEC agreement only to Punjab.
Ahsan Iqbal said the CPEC agreement will be a game changer in the region and entire world is focusing on it.
“At the present, it will be inappropriate to make the document public.”
He added that there are several agreements with China under the umbrella of CPEC and work is under process on these agreements.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch informed the Senate that a plan had been devised for early repatriation of Afghan Refugees to their country.
Speaking during question hour in the Senate, the minister said the prime minister had approved the extension in validity of PoR cards of registered Afghan refugees till December 31, 2016.
However, a high level meeting was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, deciding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would approach the Government of Afghanistan bilaterally on the political and diplomatic level.
The Ministry of SAFRON would engage UNHCR and Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation Afghanistan to pursue and devise modalities for implementation of early returns as well as the possibility of shifting Afghan refugees gradually from Pakistan to Afghanistan where the Afghan Government should establish settlements for them.
