Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday said a recent statement of his, in which he appeared to say that China advised Pakistan to not “conduct any experiment” during the 2018 elections, was taken “out of context”.

His clarification follows media coverage of his statement made on Geo News’ programme ‘Jirga’ last night, during which he discussed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Iqbal had said, “Let me also tell you that it is in my personal knowledge that China — in their usual diplomatic manner — tried to convey to that time’s establishment that you should not conduct any new experiment because [then] CPEC will get derailed.”

Members linked to the coalition government, have on multiple occasions, accused the then-PTI government of harming progress on the multi-billion dollar CPEC project.

“And then they (China) were told that ‘no, whoever comes next, rest assured, we will keep them right and they will continue [CPEC]’.”

When host Saleem Safi sought confirmation of his claim, the minister went on to explain, “It is in my knowledge that in their usual cautious manner, they had conveyed that any sort of experiment for change will not be in Pakistan’s favour and will destroy CPEC as well.

“Therefore, you should not interfere in the elections — let fair and free elections take place”, he quoted the Chinese officials as saying to the establishment.

Iqbal then asserted that at that time, “everyone could see that PML-N government will come to power once again if fair and free elections were held”.

When further asked by the host about how the Chinese officials knew from before that the PTI government would allegedly worsen the CPEC progress, he answered: “It is not about that what the PTI would do — it is about disruption.”

In his clarification tweet today, the PML-N leader said, “My statement about China in a TV interview is out of context which needs clarification. China maintains a policy of non-interference in domestic affairs of other countries.

He insisted that the advice of not experimenting with the general elections was the “privately expressed opinion” of “some senior businessmen working on CPEC projects”, rather than China officially conveying it to the establishment as his TV interview had depicted.

Reiterating what he had said in his interview, Iqbal said, “As by March/April 2018, it had become abundantly clear and was being openly discussed in international media that establishment of that time didn’t want PML-N government to return and was helping PTI to come in power through interference in electoral process.”

Meanwhile, ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi termed Iqbal’s statement in the interview to be “unfortunate and irresponsible”.

“The insinuation that our iron brother would interfere in our domestic affairs is baffling and insulting,” he said on Twitter.

Qureshi said the PTI had always had “strong consensus” on taking CPEC forward. He said that under the leadership of ex-premier Imran Khan, the PTI government had successfully implemented several projects.