ISLAMABAD: The communications ministry and the National Highway Authority (NHA) failed on Monday to give satisfactory answers to the questions raised by the Senate Standing Committee on Communications about construction of the western route of the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

A meeting of the committee, headed by Senator Daud Khan Achakzai, regretted that over Rs50bn had been set aside in last year’s budget for the corridor’s eastern route against an allocation of only Rs3bn for the western route. However, not a single penny was spent on the western route.

The committee noted that an amount of Rs1.2bn had been allocated in the budget for the financial year 2016-17 for the western route while Rs66bn had been earmarked for the eastern route, despite the fact that Rs55bn was required to acquire land for the western route.

An official statement issued by the Senate Secretariat said the communications ministry officials and NHA Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar could not give satisfactory replies to the queries of the committee regarding the western route.

The committee observed that not a single penny had been allocated in the budget 2016-17 for western route’s land acquisition, although the prime minister had announced that the agreed 1,674km-long route would be built on a priority basis after a multi-party conference on Jan 15.

The western route comprises areas of Burhan, Hakla, D.I. Khan, Zhob, Quetta, Surab, Besima, Panjgur, Hoshab, Turbat and Gwadar.

The Senate Special Committee on the CEPC had on June 19 also expressed reservations over non-development of the western route and submitted its third report to the upper house.

The Senate standing committee’s chairman said the Chinese ambassador in Pakistan had endorsed the stance of the committee by announcing that it was up to Islamabad to decide priorities regarding the two CPEC routes.

“It seems that the government intentionally wants to fail the CPEC project. It falsely projects that the western route is being given priority but the fact is that no money has been allocated against Rs55bn required for land acquisition,” Mr Achakzai regretted.

The NHA chairman said Rs1.5bn would be spent on Thakot-Havelian road and Rs2.9bn on Multan-Sukkur motorway. Both are CPEC projects.

He said work on Burhan-D.I. Khan and D.I. Khan-Zhob roads will be completed in three months. “A sum of Rs22bn has been allocated for Burhan-D.I. Khan road under the Public Sector Development Programme,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016