The senseless killing of 43 Ismailis in Karachi earlier this week overshadowed a sitting of the country’s top political leadership, convened by the government to dispel doubts regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

As the PM was due to head to Karachi immediately after the meeting for an emergency meeting, participants of the huddle were requested not to ask too many questions. This meant that for most of those in attendance, the meeting remained inconclusive.

However, the sitting did agree to constitute a parliamentary committee for regular oversight of the corridor project.

But the question remains: why does nearly every opposition party have queries regarding the project, which the government claims will bring investment worth $45 billion to the country. Every minister one talks to about the CPEC label the route’s adversaries ‘traitors’. Even the PM, in his opening remarks on the eve of Wednesday’s meeting, used the words “enemies of the state” to describe those who were posing hurdles to the smooth implementation of the project.

Considering the amount of money the project is set to bring in and the length and breadth of the project, which stretches from Kashghar to Gawadar, touching all the four provinces, one can be forgiven for believing the government ministers. After all, who would question investment of this magnitude, that too coming from an all-weather friend.

All major opposition parties, including the PPP, PTI and ANP have genuine concerns too. They claim that the PML-N’s decision to discreetly push ahead with the CPEC, which it claims is a national project but then completely ignores the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and PPP-ruled Sindh governments. Some have even dubbed it the “China-Punjab Economic Corridor”, evidenced by the fact that while Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif has been a regular feature of CPEC-related visits to China, Balochistan CM Dr Abdul Malik was only occasionally taken along.

Surprisingly, Dr Malik and the Balochistan Assembly as a whole, are also unclear about the nitty-gritty of the corridor. The provincial assembly even passed a resolution recently, seeking specifics on the province-wise investment ratio under the CPEC.

PTI MNA Asad Umar insists that no party opposes the CPEC. “But we do have the right to ask the government certain questions, as this [Wednesday’s] meeting was the first time we have been formally told about the CPEC,” he said. For example, he said, the government intended to carry out power generation projects under the CPEC in KP, was the head of the provincial energy board was invited to in none of the many meetings held so far.

So why has the government not been able to effectively present its case on the CPEC to the opposition so far? Talking to Dawn, a senior government aide who works closely with the PM acknowledged that the PML-N was traditionally not good at communication, particularly, when it came to taking the opposition on board.

On condition of anonymity, he said, “Since private companies will be involved in implementing projects, in some areas, activities such as site selection for a certain project are out of our hands. And yes it is natural that they would prefer to invest in infrastructure development in relatively peaceful areas where their investment will be safe.”

“In my opinion, PM Nawaz Sharif needs a better PR team to explain the CPEC. Ahsan Iqbal may be a good planner, but his didactic lectures have failed to make an impact on the opposition benches,” said a government minister.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, he said, wasn’t helping the cause much either, given his preoccupation with Imran Khan.

The complaints against Mr Iqbal are not new. At a recent sitting of the National Assembly, he faced a protest from his fellow party members, Rohail Asghar, when he went on for over an hour while delivering a policy statement on the CPEC. However, even that failed to inspire confidence among parliamentarians with unanswered questions.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2015

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