ISLAMABAD: Members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Planning and Development will visit Gwadar in the last week of this month to physically inspect the progress in implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Besides reviewing the progress of work on various projects being executed under the CPEC as well as the Public Sector Development Programme, the committee members will receive a briefing from the federal and provincial authorities on the establishment of a university in Gwadar.

The itinerary and agenda issued by the National Assembly Secretariat shows that the members plan to visit the port city of Balochistan on Sept 27. The members of the committee, headed by Abdul Majeed Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, will also receive a presentation on the “role, function and funding of University of Turbat and establishment of its campus in Gwadar”, according to the agenda.

Gwadar is at the centre of the $46 billion CPEC project and more than $1bn worth of projects are to be developed around its port by December 2017.

However, nationalist parties, particularly those belonging to Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have been expressing their reservations over the corridor projects as they fear that the two provinces may not get as much benefits as promised. These parties accuse the PML-N government of changing the original CPEC plan by altering the route from Gwadar to China in order to provide more benefit to central Punjab areas.

The government has been facing great difficulties in removing the apprehensions of these parties despite the fact that the CPEC is under strict parliamentary scrutiny and at least four committees of the National Assembly and the Senate are simultaneously overseeing it.

Besides the committees of planning and development of the two houses, a special committee of the Senate under veteran Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Taj Haider and a special parliamentary committee under Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed are also overseeing the implementation of CPEC projects.

The committee headed by Mr Hussain had been formed by the National Assembly speaker under a decision of a multi-party conference held in Islamabad in May last year to build consensus on the CPEC project.

Addressing the participants of the conference, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced that the corridor’s western route would be constructed first for which funds would be released soon. He assured the political leaders that all matters relating the CPEC project would be kept transparent and their reservations would be addressed.

However, time and again, reservations are being raised by some political parties, claiming that the federal government is giving little priority to the western route, compared to the eastern route.

The criticism of CPEC echoed in the Senate last week when lawmakers belonging to the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party alleged that there had been no progress on the CPEC in the province.

During a debate on the terrorist attack on Quetta’s Civil Hospital, senators criticised the prime minister and Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif for their reported statements that the Quetta incident was an attack on the CPEC. The senators from Balochistan alleged that the CPEC did not exist at all in the province.

On the other hand, the government claims that the CPEC will pass through the entire country and all provinces will benefit from it, particularly the backward areas of Balochistan and KP.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has stated on a number of occasions that CPEC is crucial for the country’s economic stability and security and, therefore, it should not be made controversial.

Published in Dawn September 13th, 2016

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