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ISLAMABAD: The aggressive position taken by the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government against the federal government for ignoring its concerns over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) led to an animated discussion between the two at the Prime Minister Office on Friday.
More than one participant of the meeting convened by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to address apprehensions of political parties in KP and Balochistan over the corridor pointed out in background discussions that a heated debate took place between KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and federal ministers.
Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif and Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal also attended the meeting.
At one point, according to a participant, one of the federal ministers taunted Mr Khattak that “instead of focusing on your own province, you and your government are spending all your energy on making the CPEC controversial and, in the process, creating problems for the federal government”.
An irritated Khattak replied: “Don’t worry about my province; I know how to do my job.”
On another occasion, the PTI delegation, which also included its parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Shah Mehmood Qureshi, sought a direct answer to their questions from the prime minister instead of Ahsan Iqbal.
The federal ministers also felt tense when a politician from KP told the prime minister that instead of clearing doubts his cabinet members were creating confusion about the corridor.
The KP chief minister said that there was lack of information about the CPEC vis-à-vis the Punjab CM who was directly involved in talks with the Chinese. “At least let us know what is happening on ground. We are not only interested in roads, but also economic zones,” Mr Khattak was quoted as saying.
Later talking to Dawn, Mr Qureshi said: “For the time being the KP government has accepted reassurance given by the prime minister about the fair distribution of investment which will be made under the CPEC. However, the PTI, along with other political parties from KP, made it clear that they would be satisfied only after the agreements reached during the meeting are implemented on ground.”
He said the PTI told the prime minister that in the absence of a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) on the matter, ineffective parliamentary committee on the CPEC and futile discussions in parliament, “we were left with no option but to give protest calls”.
Mr Qureshi welcomed the prime minister’s decision to personally monitor implementation of the project, but said that “we have told the government that we need certain timeline and financial plan for whatever projects it intends to carry out in KP”.
PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain, who also attended the meeting, said all stakeholders were needed to be taken on board at every stage. “I think the prime minister has taken the right decision to be part of the special committee (set up during Friday’s meeting) which will regularly review its (corridor) progress.”
He said the KP government had certain reservations over the CPEC which the federal government tried to address and one should hope that due to regular meetings of the special committee there wouldn’t be much in the implementation of the corridor projects.
“The positive outcome of Friday’s meeting is that all political parties have agreed to collectively work for trouble-free implementation of the corridor which is not only beneficial for the country, but also for the entire region,” Mr Hussain said.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2016
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Comments (58) Closed
Jan 16, 2016 07:06am
United we stand... Divided we fall... Stop bickering on petty issues... Pleas do not make CPEC controversial... Strategic interests are paramount... Routes can be re-arranged later... Mr. PM if they are not willing to listen just don’t waste time and give green signal for the project to go ahead full throttle…
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Jan 16, 2016 07:12am
This may be controversial but it seems PTI is the hurdle not the Centre. The Centre has addressed everyone's reservations so it is KPK that just wants to create unnecessary issues where there are none.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:39am
Thank you PTI for fighting KPs cause. I hope that at the end the 'P' in CPEC stands for Pakistan and not just Punjab. Why center is hiding the details about KP's share of projects from KP's government? As much center tries to hide such things the suspicion will rise even more.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:40am
Hopefully CPEC wont be delayed by dharnas!!! IK needs to check his ego, " IKs ego is writing checks his party cant cash "
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Jan 16, 2016 07:45am
Give pti a smooth run in their province and complete all the fedral related projects in our province and we will give you the same. Otherwise there is no corridor without kpk.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:46am
PTI will continue to peddle its own interests ahead of a national one even at the expense of national unity. They are playing exactly the same role as played by their province earlier in scuttling the Kalabagh Dam project.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:49am
@Mare
That's not true. Secrecy is the hallmark of N. The changes are being made without taking all the provinces on board. Only one CM us visible. PM should make every genuine effort to address the grievances of smaller provinces. Don't turn this into another kalabagh. And PTI is doing a wonderful job as the only opposition visible. Well done pti.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:55am
Instead of making a firm decision and settling all arguments and responding positively to people's reservation the Prime Minister passes the buck to Provincial Chief Ministers to keep the controversies going
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Jan 16, 2016 08:00am
MR Mare and AHMED: Do you also want the political parties in KPK to become another problem for KPK ...and specially in case when they are right if there demands are not met ...this Province have already seem to much bloodshed why give them more grief ... i have seen Mr Qureshi press conference .... all the parties from KPK asked legitimate questions and concerns ... First it was Baluchistan than Sind and now KPK ...Do you really think that all of them are asking too much ... where the reality is that all 3 provinces are giving more than their half of the share .... Come on be sensible and above all be a Pakistani ... Pakistan is the sum of all 4 provinces NOT Punjab ....
Just address their concerns with sincerity and honestly and lets puts this beautiful country of ours on the right track ...
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Jan 16, 2016 08:17am
Kpk had genuin reservations nd must be sorted out in order to hav a successful cpec project
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Jan 16, 2016 08:24am
@Ahmed USA nah my friend its not that easy.
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Jan 16, 2016 08:31am
Everyone has the right to get equal share from this opportunity, and center has the responsibility to drive the right implementation, no matter who says what. PTI is not doing this unnecessarily. Long after dharna people realized PTI was right and will keep on doing that till the end of this Govt's tenure (no gas, no electricity, miserable foreign policy etc etc). The good thing is the PM is monitoring it himself and should not trust his cabinet in this regards as this is a sensitive matter. Ahsan Iqbal is the only good person in the cabinet but not sure why he is not able to clear this fuss (may be he doesn't have the power)...
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Jan 16, 2016 08:36am
hundreds of miles through kpk will not be allowed to be built unless the original CPEC corridor is adhered through,could anyone in right mind have thought that orange train is also part of CPEC,next Lahore Disney will be pronounced of being built under CPEC,please give me a break
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Jan 16, 2016 08:44am
@Ahmed USA...yeah, make everything go thru Punjab and life is good. No need to worry about any other province or even certain areas in Punjab. Let the Sharif Kingdom continue to keep things secret so all the contracts and billions can be manipulated for personal and the benefit of a few close family/friends.
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Jan 16, 2016 08:48am
Dear all, I may not be very well versed with politics but just using common sense if every party including plmn from KPK is asking for a fair go and transparency to the issue then I would reckon fedral/Punjab govt should address those issues. Rather than giving people from KPK a sense that their is nothing as logical and or transparency when it comes to Lahore and Punjab.
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Jan 16, 2016 08:50am
@Ahmed USA, it seems you do not believe in democracy or for that matter justice. Nawaz Sharif only thinks about Punjab. I wonder why Shabaz Sharif has been given the authority to deal with the Chinese directly. If questions like these are asked the Sharif supporters start talking about controversy. The Sharifs have to stop thinking that Pakistan is their Jagir.
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Jan 16, 2016 08:56am
CPEC must be implemented under all costs, period.
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Jan 16, 2016 09:01am
KPK government is right,CPEC should not go ahead without addressing KPK's concerns.If required KPK and Baluchistan should visit China and inform Chinese government not to go ahead with CPEC until all provinces are taken on board.
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Jan 16, 2016 09:05am
Great job Government of KP ! Keep fighting for your rights. Actual CPEC consists of just one route i.e. the western route. There was no eastern route in the first place. The N league are a bunch of prejudice and narrow minded people who can't bear to see minor bit of prosperity coming to the backward provinces. And they also know that by only keeping the punjabis happy they can secure 50 percent NA seats and thus form a government even if that has to happen at the cost of national integration.
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Jan 16, 2016 09:12am
Another Kalabagh in the making?
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Jan 16, 2016 09:15am
Why is Shahbaz Sharif the only CM to be in direct talk with the Chinese ???? All provinces should be taken on board and be equally involved and not just Punjab CM.
Pervez Khattak and his government are doing a wonderful job by safeguarding their province interests.
People have to remember that CPEC is a pakistan project and not just a Punjab project and pmln supporters should stop making this project more controversial than it already have become.
A request to the federal government. .we want more transparency regarding CPEC and either it is only the federal government that is involved in direct talks with the Chinese or CM's of all provinces are included in these talks. By only involving Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif you are creating a controversy.
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Jan 16, 2016 09:30am
lets not construct the western route through KP and Baluchistan. Let us take it though the agricultural, fertile land. who needs agriculture. we are already doing a good job by constructing housing colonies on the most fertile land in the country. With additional industrialization in these area, we will be able to give incentive to more people to move here and continue with our blind expansion. DHA, Bahria, Jati Umraan looks much better than corn, cotton or sugarcane fields.
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Jan 16, 2016 09:53am
@naveed Who is stopping the KPK government from attracting foreign investment which they can after the 18th amendment? Please stop making excuses for PTI's incompetence.
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Jan 16, 2016 10:01am
PMLN is keeping every thing secrete and does not disclose the details of the project and the deal under which the project is to be implemented which speaks there is something fishy which if disclosed to the other stake holders would expose the personal agenda of the rulers of Islamabad behind all this.Things should be made transparent to satisfy all but they won't because they have ill designs of personal and provincial benefits instead of national interests.The PM looks to be representing a province instead of federation which is dangerous for unity of nation.
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Jan 16, 2016 10:13am
KPK is right for its right. Hope PM understood KPK rights. KPK should make direct approach to China President for redress of its right.
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Jan 16, 2016 10:13am
PTI is supposed to protect interests of KPK . PK is doing the right thing. People of this province trusted PTI in resolving their issues and to bring prosperity in the province. Punjab should scarifice for the sake of Pakistan since this province has rules over the country for decades. BZ to PTI .
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Jan 16, 2016 10:39am
just a small suggestion to pakistanis, Though CPEC is good thing and may help Pakistan on the path of prosperity...you all have to learn that it is not good sign if you put all the eggs in one basket...you should try working on other stuff as well in parallel
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Jan 16, 2016 11:12am
I hear Imran khan's shallow thinking behind the KP cm's dissent. Doesn't he see that if there is no CPEC there is no economic corridor for anybody period.
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Jan 16, 2016 11:14am
Extending the original Cpec route by 500 Kms and passing through the fertile land of central punjab is a big blunder and reflects narrow mindedness of pmln leaders. The original route has no eastern path. The straigter and shorter route is the western route which is also beneficial for under preveliged and war hit cetezins of punjab,kp and baluchitan.
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Jan 16, 2016 11:38am
@Mare , well mares have other things on their minds. So please spare us from your prompted comments. Prompted by Perv Rashid ministry.
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Jan 16, 2016 12:35pm
@Ahmed USA ' routes can be rearranged later' Its not even funny!
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Jan 16, 2016 12:49pm
Few political parties are guru of creating troubles on big projects. This is extremely important project for future generations. But these politicians are narrow minded. They saw some dreams at night and next day they do political scoring. World will be laughing on us and specially China. We are enemies of our own.
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Jan 16, 2016 12:54pm
This is logical stand taken by KPK government. It truly represent the resentment in the smaller provinces against Federation dominated by Punjab. It is time we stop this self contradictory phenomena of resource distribution based on population as internal migration takes place to the developed area and hence under developed areas keep getting sidelined.
We all know how Chinese have been complaining about the eastern route but PML-N has been adamant to benefit its party men who are majority from Punjab. KPK or Baluchistan can not be drilled for minerals and oil and the benefits passed on to Punjab. Its time to do justice to smaller provinces.
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Jan 16, 2016 01:02pm
@Imran You know nothing about Kalabagh dam... Do you know Mianwali was part of KPK and was merged into Punjab later. Now Kalabagh dam water resourvior would be 95% in KPK, however, the power generating side will be in Kalabagh which falls in Punjab. As per Federal rule, the province where the power generators are installed get the full royalty for electricity generation.
These are the kind of corrupt practices by Punjab that result in stopping such remarkable projects. Why PMLN is installing all Furnace oil power plants in Punjab instead of upper Sindh and lower Sindh as bulk of the oil flows from the southern ports. Just to ensure they have control and get royalty. KPK Tarbella power goes south while the 40% of the oil produced in KPK and rest in Baluchistan flows to Punjab refineries for processing. Why a single refinery is not setup in these provinces. KPK is not getting any support from Federal government for the mass transit project .
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Jan 16, 2016 01:25pm
We are not used to cooperating with each other, first we will have to learn tolerance
and how to work together and listen to each other , and give and take, CPEC is a golden
opportunity for all of Pakistan, we should make use of this because this going up of
Pakistan will not stop now, unlimited investments will come ,lets believe it
and stop only complaining and bickering...Ameen...
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Jan 16, 2016 01:34pm
For all this behaviour of PTI and its Khattak the blame goes to Imran Khan, right from the start he has set his party on the path of complaining and bickering and the tone is set, PTI is working on the opposite of live and let live...PTI says we will not live neither we want you to live...they will have to change this tone otherwise they will be the final losers.
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Jan 16, 2016 01:34pm
So its TRUE what Khattak sb was saying in News Channal, the feeling is that PMLN dictirial attitude also comes clear in meeting. Its the 60% proviance which is not giving the share to the rest of 40% and we are facing Kalabag like issues.
I do not beleive on the outcome of the meeting, this has happened on 28th May last year as well. A Govt which is voilating laws LAWs by not calling CCI as the 3 proviances will ask for their share and Nawas Sharif will have no assistance of these ministers.....
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Jan 16, 2016 01:37pm
@Nathan EX PTI worker ....Those who fight for their rights are called IK's PTI and those who grabs the rights of others are called NS'e PMLN
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Jan 16, 2016 01:58pm
@N_Saq Living mostly under a military dictatorship you seem to have no understanding of how the process works. The KP government must be on board. You have to convince the KP government to come on board and you cant bulldoze people into doing whatever you want to do.
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Jan 16, 2016 02:12pm
I do not understand the PTI position. It seems to be Dharna on the CPEC. Perhaps, its leaders do not know that the $46B is China's money and the final decision about the CPEC's FIRST route will be made by China and NOT Pakistan. I wish PTI would learn from the Indian example. There 'connecting' the country is the basic urge. Both China & Japan are interested in building Bullet trains in India, 10,000 km in total. Japan has won the first contract for Ahmedabad to Mumbai bullet train, 500 km. It would have been easy for Congress and others to accuse Modi of favouring Gujrat (He was the CM of Gujrat for a long time) for this contract but no one has taken the bait. They understand that the investor has the final say. Could some one, please, explain this to the PTI? Dissention on the route could create problems for the Chinese Govt. as her stock exchanges are diving almost daily and sparing cash is also vanishing.
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Jan 16, 2016 02:13pm
If central govt has thrown more than full share of bloodshed for years in KPK, it's the laters right to grab its share of benefit. Why the cunning federal ministers insist on zigzag route passing through Punjab instead of ignoring a straight western route where all political leaders agreed last year in May. Why did the N league made it controversial.
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Jan 16, 2016 02:15pm
Good going PTI. Dont let CPEC become personal business venture of the Sharif brothers as it looks like now. Let this be a transpaŕent project and all provinces should benefit not just Punjab.
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Jan 16, 2016 02:40pm
From State Bank governor, political parties, to IMF everybody has raised questions over transparency of CPEC but present government is hell bent on making CPEC controversial. What are they hiding from nation?
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Jan 16, 2016 04:27pm
these discussions should be kept behind closed doors, the politicians have missed a trick. When the Chinese and those who oppose CPEC they will try to use these disputes for their own purposes. Although I support PTI, they need to be more mindful of the manner in which they behave in public.
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Jan 16, 2016 04:38pm
I used to support PTI but not anymore they have become nothing but trouble makers and now are riddled with anti state elements in my opinion.
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Jan 16, 2016 05:12pm
Can someone answer this please? What if someone from KPK or baluchistan is aspiring to become PM of Pakistan, the only was that can be achieved is by winning Punjab in next election perhaps? This is what BB did, when she became PM of Pakistan twice, a person from sindh. This Punjab centric CPEC should be looked into with this background with the eye on next election. Democracy in its present form is a achelles heal for the state. The present system cannot take Pakistan forward.
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Jan 16, 2016 05:14pm
@Ahmed USA Transparency is not a petty issue.....Lahoriii style of management is everything possible only for themselves and only bones for others......and opaque style of management as displayed in Nandipur Power Project or the 12 murdered publicly in model town Lahore.....
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Jan 16, 2016 05:17pm
Petty minded PTI and their supporters are even worse, the route is going through Pakistan that's the way I think of it, we should all be thankful for it.Things can be adjusted later to make sure all provinces get their due share just don't rock the Boat before the project has started !.
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Jan 16, 2016 06:19pm
PTI is an obstructionist party, just fed up of their foolish antics.
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Jan 16, 2016 06:29pm
@ M Junaid Khan All you say is public knowledge. I agree that the rule about the power generation units getting most of the royalties is absurd. However, why has IK not brought up this issue in his Dharna's for example, or in the parliament. The actual reason is that he wants to appease the certain power brokers of Nowshera at the expense of Pakistan. And guess who is from Nowshera? So let's call a spade a spade. Nothing is preventing them from prospecting from minerals etc. or setting up hydro projects. It is ridiculous to believe that CPEC highway will go through mining areas that are typically up in the mountains. PTI is just too busy criticizing others and engaging in political intrigues rather than getting any real work done.
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Jan 16, 2016 06:35pm
@Iqbal Khan PTI should continue to Punjab-bash. What they seem to forget is that people living Punjab are also Pakistanis and will respond in kind in the 2018 elections inshallah. Pakistanis will never forgive IK for hurting Pakistan so badly to satisfy his blind lust for power.
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Jan 16, 2016 06:41pm
PML-N is as corrupt as PPP. They will never want transparency in any matter otherwise their own commissions will be in danger. Pakistanis better get rid of both of these asap.
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Jan 16, 2016 06:53pm
@Ahmed USA
It is the NS and his cronies who have made this project controversial.
Sharifs put there interests ahead of Pakistan. Western route is 600 KM shorter, uplifts of underdeveloped areas of Baochistan, Southern Punjab and KPK.
Just think who is doing injustice to Pakistan.
Where is the sincerety to Pakistan?
We should open our eyes and minds. We should have wider vision.( Even Chinese were more interested in that route)
In addition, later non eastern route can also be developed. NS government has not shown transparency in any mattere.g LNG, CPEC Corruption issue
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Jan 16, 2016 06:55pm
@Mustafa
It is not only KPK cause. It is southern Punjab cause too
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Jan 16, 2016 07:00pm
@Imran What NS is doing is not in favor of Punjab or Pakistan. Original planned route uplifts under developed areas of Punjab
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Jan 16, 2016 07:45pm
@Mare lip service is not good enough. If you have any idea of Project Management, you wouldn't have said the hurdle is KPK. Failure if Federal's for not disclosing any 'ourline' or let alone 'detailed' project plans for KPK. Any project implementation based on ad-hoc and lipservice method fails as there's absolutely no accountability.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:48pm
@Imran that's the central govt not allowing foreign investment in KPK because they still enjoy the authority of NOC ( no objection certificate) after 18th amendment.
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Jan 16, 2016 07:52pm
@Atam Vetta I think you are not aware of 28 May 2015 APC where a unanimous decision on western route was taken.
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