ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the National Assembly sought on Monday clarifications from the treasury benches on a number of issues related to the China-Pak Economic Corridor.

The opposition lawmakers welcomed the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, but during the question hour expressed their displeasure that the house had not been taken into confidence on the project by the government.

Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal submitted a written reply, but the lawmakers said they lacked information about the corridor which the government has described as a “game-changer” for economic development of the country.

In a supplementary question, Dr Nafisa Shah of the PPP said so much has been written and said about the CPEC, “but we still don’t know about the nature of the investment, whether it will be through loans or grants. Moreover, the government is yet to address the controversy surrounding the change in original route of the CPEC”.

Ms Musarrat, another PPP legislator, wanted to know if it is “a fact that changes have been made in the original route”.

Ali Mohammad Khan of the PTI said the government should tell the house whether some changes had been made in the route because certain quarters were alleging that the corridor had been taken closer to Lahore.

Government ally Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI-F said “at a recent meeting with officials of the planning and development commission that our concerns about the CPEC, particularly its route, have has been addressed”.

The Maulana said he fully supported the project.

In his written reply, the minister said: “CPEC is a comprehensive package of cooperative initiatives and projects, which covers the key areas including connectivity, information network infrastructure, energy cooperation, industries and industrial parks, agricultural development and poverty alleviation, tourism, financial cooperation as well as livelihood improvement including municipal infrastructure, education, public health and people-to-people communication.”

The minister said no change had been made in the original route of the corridor which would connect the nodes of growth centres.

He said significant nodes along the corridor would be Kashgar, Khunjerab, Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, D. I. Khan. Multan, Sukkur, Quetta, Karachi and Gwadar and other nodes and growth centres might fall within the CPEC in future.

“It will also be connected with trade facilitation corridors, dedicated freight corridors, energy corridors, trade logistics, corridor, telecommunications corridor.”

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2015

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