HYDERABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal has cast doubt on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government’s sincerity with China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and said the present government takes different positions on CPEC in China and at home.

“They praise CPEC when they are in China by reiterating in joint declaration that CPEC has played an important role in Pakistan’s development but start issuing inappropriate statements after they are back home,” said Mr Iqbal while speaking to journalists at a reception hosted in his honour by PML-N Sindh leader Shah Mohammad Shah here on Thursday night.

He expressed concern over the government’s terming CEPC projects non-transparent and expensive in National Assembly and questioned whether the government was sincere with CPEC or not.

He said the PTI leaders used to allege lack of transparency in CPEC “…now that they are in power they must point out where is the lack of transparency and corruption”.

Mr Iqbal said the government itself tended to undermine ties with China by questioning CPEC projects. The government was neither aware of its importance nor was it trying to understand it as it had been treating CPEC as a political issue which had affected the project’s pace, he said.

He hoped the prime minister must have understood that CPEC was a transparent and vital project for Pakistan after his recent visit to China. Pakistan claimed half the credit for the project and China was about to complete its part of the work but if Pakistan did not finish its part of the job, then CPEC projects would be affected, he said.

The former minister termed CPEC highly beneficial and a game changer for Pakistan, which was scheduled to be completed by 2030 in three phases. Pakistan and China had worked jointly and dedicatedly for the project, he said.

About recent foreign visits of the prime minister, the PML-N leader said that even a child knew that Pakistan would have to show the “glass half filled with water” to the world if it wanted to attract investment.

But, he said, the investors would not feel inclined for investment in Pakistan if PTI continued to issue threatening statements against the opposition. They should deliver speeches in National Assembly to hit out at opposition to their satisfaction instead of scaring away investors, he said.

Mr Iqbal said that Pakistan Peoples Party was a pro-democracy party and it would surely side with democratic forces as was evident in the statement of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who reiterated that a selected prime minister had been thrust on Pakistan. The opposition must make parliamentary commission on rigging successful through joint efforts, he said.

There were serious fears the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was making the process of accountability controversial and chairman NAB must take notice of it as most of the anti-graft body’s actions smacked of political agenda, he said.

He said that no federal minister could replace a prime minister because it was he who had to take final decisions in all matters. But unfortunately, Pakistan had got a prime minister who was getting ‘on-job’ training on a daily basis, he said.

He said the government did not make itself visible in assembly while there was a competition within opposition ranks to prove which was bigger among them. PTI leaders had not yet been able to cast off their D-Chowk mentality and realise that they were now in government and holding ministerial positions, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2018