PESHAWAR: The mainstream political parties have threatened to take to streets if federal government tries to make the China-Pak Economic Corridor project controversial.

In their separate statements, Jamaat-i-Islami, Qaumi Watan Party and Awami National Party warned of resistance if federal government didn’t remove their reservations regarding the project and tried to execute it without consulting the political parties of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and Balochistan.

QWP chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said that federal government would face strong resistance if the original route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was changed.

“We appreciate and support this mega project and we want to make it a success as soon as possible. But the federal government seems to be less interested in the western route and that is why federal minister issues such statements to make this project controversial,” he told a press conference here on Tuesday.

According to a statement, Provincial Senior Minister Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, also provincial chief of QWP, and Provincial Minister Anisa Zeb Tahirkhelvi were also present during the press conference.

Criticising Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s statement, Mr Sherpao said that consensus to construct western route of CPEC on priority basis was already reached during the All-Party Conference and the government should fulfil its promises.

He said that CPEC project was matter of life and death for Pakhtuns and his party would show strong resistance if the federal government ignored militancy-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

In another statement, ANP senior leader Haji Mohammad Adeel also criticised the federal government for what he called its discriminative approach, saying the CPEC looked more like China-Punjab economic corridor.

He said that federal government should remove reservations of other provinces by implementing original plan to ensure adequate share of each province in development under the project.

Jamaat-i-Islmai also said in a statement that if federal government did not want to make the project controversial then it should take other political parties into confidence. The federal government should form a committee comprising all the parliamentary leaders in the National Assembly and chief ministers of the four provinces to discuss details of the project, it said.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2016