LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh President Nisar Khuhro says Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan are dejected over “unfair sharing” of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and chided Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for creating rifts among three provinces.

Khuhro said the prime minister had conveniently ignored Port Qasim towards Keti Bandar, coastal highway and Karachi’s circular railways. He said Sindh had been given just five per cent of the $47 billion CPEC – for the construction of a highway.

“This is the height of prejudice on the part of the prime minister,” he lamented.

Mr Khuhro was speaking at a news conference flanked by PPP leaders including party’s Sindh chapter general secretary Waqar Mehdi and Sindh information secretary Senator Aajiz Dhamra at the Lahore Press Club on Saturday.

He said former president Asif Ali Zardari had paid several visits to China and strengthened Sino-Pak relations for working together for development. But, now, the most of CPEC fund was being used in Lahore completely ignoring five times bigger city - Karachi.

Similarly, he said, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto wanted to set up an industrial area and a plant near Port Qasim to generate 5,000MW power by using Thar coal. However, Nawaz Sharif later closed the project and eventually former president Gen Pervez Musharraf ‘ruined’ the entire plan.

The PPP Sindh president also chided the prime minister for proposed three per cent cut in National Finance Commission (NFC) to fund the Zarb-i-Azab operation. He said Nawaz Sharif’s ‘unwise’ policies had prompted the United States to stop the Coalition Support Fund for Zarb-i-Azab and now provinces were being charged.

“I condemn the incumbent PML-N government for trying to cut provinces’ share in the NFC, which has yet not been dispersed since 2015,” he said.

He said the Sindh Assembly had passed the law to check the kidnapping of girls and forced conversion from their religion.

Mr Khuhro chided the government for suspending licences of three news channels. He also explained PPP’s four points presented to the federal government.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2016