PESHAWAR: The parliamentarians from southern districts have blamed the federal government of PML-N for telling China that western route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not safe so opt for the eastern route.

Sheharyar Afridi, a PTI MNA from Kohat, has said that during a recent visit, Chinese Communist Party told their delegation that Pakistan government had conveyed its reservations about law and order on the western route and proposed to China to opt for the eastern route.

Mr Afridi, who was on an official tour to China from Dec 10 to Dec19 last year with other politicians and parliamentarians, said that it was shocking for him to learn from Chinese what the federal government had conveyed to it about his hometown and other districts, which had been in frontline in the fight against terrorism yet deprived of development by calling them insecure.

Ironically the 11-member committee lobbying for due share in development under CPEC is initiated by the ruling PML-N provincial president Rehmat Salam Khattak, who also hails from the oil and gas rich but under-developed Karak district. He also felt his district was deprived of development when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated a route from Zhob.

PTI lawmaker says govt proposed to China to opt for eastern route of the corridor

Mr Afridi, who is part of the 11-member committee of politicians lobbying for western route as per original plan of CPEC, said that the committee had been meeting relevant Pakistani leaders and would not budge from meeting Chinese government officials if they were not heard by their own government.

A few days ago, other members of the committee including Afrasiab Khattak, Salim Saifullah and MNA Amirullah Marwat, Rehmat Salam Khattak, MPA Zarin Zia and others during a press conference had voiced the same concerns about deprivation of southern districts of the benefits of CPEC.

Both the PTI lawmakers from southern districts have alleged that despite raising the issue on the floor of National Assembly, they were not provided with original plan and facts and figures about CPEC.

“In one meeting, we were shown one map and plan and some other in the next meeting. We were not taken on board,” said Mr Afridi.

Amirullah Marwat, another MNA of PTI from Lakki Marwat, was also of the view that western rout should be passing through west of the country. Pakistan should also include southern districts in development like China which wanted to develop its underdeveloped areas under the CPEC, he added.

“Western route is also feasible for military,” said Mr Marwat.

It is pertinent to mention here that Kohat Cantonment is the divisional headquarters of Pakistan Army, fighting militants in the tribal areas.

Despite cantonments in Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan and heavy deployment of military on routes in the southern areas, the federal government’s reservations conveyed to China about law and order in the areas has deprived it from a development opportunity or in broader perspective an opportunity of peace and prosperity.

Some of the Pakhtun nationalist youth on social media have been calling CPEC as “China-Punjab Economic Corridor” in their criticism of federal government’s exclusion of most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the corridor. Those in centre might not take such criticism serious but the way the politicians and parliamentarians from various political parties hailing from southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have gone ‘a step further than their political ideology’ to convey their reservations on deprivation of their home districts of the CPEC to the relevant quarters only proves the impression right that somewhere someone has neglected the province, especially those districts which have been frontline zone in the fight against terrorism.

The economic conditions of the seven southern districts, the neighbouring frontier regions and tribal areas, may not be much different in fact much worse from China’s Xinjiang province but the manner in which the governments of both the countries are dealing with their under-developed and terrorism-hit areas seems a lot different.

Many critics have called the development scheme ‘a game-changer’.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2016