THIS is about the Gwadar port and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The $46bn being spent on the CPEC by China will not remain $46bn. This amount is being invested in building requisite infrastructure. This amount will escalate once it gets going. Industrial zones will be made all along the railway and road to Xinjiang, and industrial development in the region will invite many investors from all over the world.

As a student of economics, I feel the total turnover from Gwadar after the CPEC’s conclusion will be about $500bn per annum. Initially, it is estimated that two million Pakistanis will get jobs.

The CPEC has to succeed come what may. Some people are agitated on its route. The route will have to be the same which is carefully studied and finalised regardless of where it is and where it should not be.

We are cribbing on loadshedding and we are talking about 300 to 500 MW projects and are claiming that loadshedding will be over by 2018 or so. We are fighting for NA-122 and LG elections and ‘rigging’. I ask: can we for once become Pakistanis and complete CPEC on a do-or-die dictum?

A. H.

Lahore

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2015