MINISTER for Water and Power Khawaja Asif wants us to believe that China is standing by with $34bn worth of ‘investments’ for Pakistan if only matters would settle down.

He insists that the funds are “not a loan” and will “not show up on Pakistan’s balance sheet”.

But scepticism remains regarding the government’s claims, which many think will not stand up to scrutiny. For starters, we don’t know the breakdown of the $34bn figure.

Nowhere in its regular cache of economic documents does the government go into any meaningful detail about it. The finance ministry’s latest Economic Survey has a small box with a simple list of the various energy and road projects, but says nothing about the amounts for each project or about the terms.

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In its revised determination for an upfront tariff for coal-fired power projects issued on June 26, Nepra said investors can include a 7pc financing charge against Sinosure fee in their project cost “in case the investors avail Chinese financing” — this is the fee for reinsurance against default for borrowing from Chinese banks. This clearly indicates that at least some of the funds in question are in fact loans for private parties to set up coal-fired power plants, using Chinese technology.

If a sum of $34bn has indeed been arranged by the government as Chinese ‘investment’, and a signature is all that remains, then one would think it would feature more prominently in chapters on growth, investment, energy and infrastructure.

It would be included in documents like Vision 2025, for instance, where a small section on the Pak-China Economic Corridor again lists areas as disparate as agriculture, energy, tourism and media for “investment and economic cooperation”.

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According to the document, the projects “will be financed through substantial inflow of foreign investment and disbursements”.

So the question remains: what mix of “investment and disbursements” is contained in the $34bn figure claimed by the government? And how does the figure break down between the various projects? The government’s claims would be less open to politically motivated attacks if there was more transparency in the details of the projects.

The minister’s credibility would also benefit if he could clarify whether or not the entire amount of $34bn is “investment”, and if so, what exactly is the status of the “early harvest” projects being incorporated under the Pak-China Economic Corridor initiative.

Published in Dawn, September 11th , 2014