Senate question hour: Rabbani wants ministers to answer CPEC questions

Directs Ahsan Iqbal to attend session on January 30

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday was accused of ‘running away’ from answering questions regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani directed Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal to attend the sessions in order to answer queries relating to the mega project.

The step was announced as PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar raised his deferred point-of-order question on why the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) was silent on projects included for the eastern route of the CPEC.

Babar asked whether the omission was intentional to present the false impression of prioritising the western route as per the decision of the May 28 All Parties Conference (APC).

Pointing out how the projects listed under the western routes in the PSDP were old projects approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council several years ago, he inquired how much money had been allocated for each of the road projects on the western and eastern routes and the money actually released until end of October 2015.

Referring to the difference in design parameters, Babar accused the government of creating a situation where the eastern corridor would automatically be preferred.

On this Rabbani observed that the planning minister was again absent from the upper house. He directed Iqbal to attend the session on January 30, 2016, to answer questions regarding the project. The Senate chairman also asked the minister for parliamentary affairs to convey this message to the prime minister as well.

In a written response to the question, the planning ministry stated that they had identified 15 potential sites to establish industrial zones along the CPEC western routes, however, these will be finalised by a joint working group on industrial cooperation with mutual consent.

Further, the planning ministry said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has constituted a committee to identify potential sites for establishing industrial zones along the western route.

Meanwhile, work on the Gwadar Free Zone has begun with 2,281 acres of land for the project already handed over to the port operator in November.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.