THIS refers to your editorial ‘The CPEC’s difficulties’ (Dec 6) in which you have touched upon questions regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Ahsan Iqbal, when he was planning, development and reform minister, kept repeating that he would make public the modalities of the project but never fulfilled his promise and finally his ministry was changed.

However, the nation was surprised only after revelation by Minister for Ports and Shipping Mir Hasil Bizenjo that 91pc of the revenues generated from Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) would go to China, while the GPA would get only 9pc for 40 years.

Now it has become necessary for the government to let the nation know the full details of all the projects under CPEC. Let us know how much we have bounded our coming generations and for how long.

One fails to understand why there is a veil of secrecy over CPEC. China is famous for transparency in its dealings but at the same time it is good at trade.

It trades even it’s time for debts. China wants to reap greater rewards from this project having in mind the deep-rooted socio-economic crisis we are facing.

Those agreements are based on equality, while lop-sided agreements never prove beneficial to either party in the long run.

G. Ali

Azad Kashmir

(2)

WE have heard a great deal about the One Belt and One Road, and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). But the question is: what benefit has it given to the common man or an unemployed young man who was hoping for a job.

We had heard our ministers promising that it would open 10 million new jobs. This also seems a political statement as the only change we see after so much hullabaloo is more Chinese in Islamabad, Faisalabad and Lahore. Chinese is becoming a must subject at universities and more interracial couples.

CPEC is making Pakistan ready for Chinese cultural influence. There is a sense of déjà vu because centuries ago the British did the same here through East India Company. Long live Pak-China friendship.

Syed Shaheer Raza

(unemployed engineer)

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017