Pakistan

Punjab gets lion’s share in Chinese projects

16,703 security personnel deployed for security of Chinese nationals, NA told

Qadeer Tanoli September 03, 2016

PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The lion's share of Chinese projects currently underway in Pakistan have been assigned to Punjab, statistics shared with the Parliament revealed.

At present, 53 per cent of the total projects are being assigned to Punjab. The provincial government has deployed 6,346 security personnel for the protection of 3,754 Chinese nationals.

According to official statistics, out of the total of 330 projects, 176 are in Punjab while only eight projects have been allocated for Balochistan.

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In a written reply to a question, raised by Shahida Rehmani in the National Assembly, regarding the security measures taken by the Ministry of Interior for the protection of Chinese personnel it was stated that a total of 16,703 security personnel were deployed for the protection of 8,819 Chinese nationals.

In his written reply, the Minister of Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan provided a breakdown and stated that 6,346 security personnel were deployed in Punjab for the security of 3,754 Chinese nationals while 3,134 personnel had been deployed in Balochistan for the security of 558 Chinese nationals.

As many as 1,912 security personnel have been deployed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to provide protection to 698 Chinese nationals, working on the 19 projects in the province. Meanwhile, 2, 645 personnel have been deployed in Sindh as security arrangement for protection of 1,141 Chinese nationals. The province currently has 103 Chinese projects underway.

Six projects have been allocated to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) for which 439 personnel of the law enforcement agencies have been deployed for the protection of 885 Chinese personnel.

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The lower house was further informed that a Special Security Division (SSD), consisting of nine composite Infantry Battalions and six Civil Armed Forces (CAF) Wings, had been constituted at a cost of Rs21.57 billion, which will provide security to the Chinese nationals.

Provision of security to citizens of Pakistan as well as to foreigners is the administrative, legal and constitutional responsibility of the provincial governments, it said, adding that the provincial governments were duly assisted by the armed forces.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly claimed Punjab is to benefit the most from the projects starting under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2016.

COMMENTS (41)

Waheed | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab is safest provience and not balochistan kpk and sindh everyone knows that , but why that's the question?@Sami:

Noori | 8 years ago | Reply CPEC will open a new door of exploitation on true resident of Baluchistan , K-P, GB and Azad Kashmir. Only Punjabi will be benefited from Chinese projects. 53 per cent of the total projects are being assigned to Punjab and 16,703 security personnel were deployed for the protection of 8,819 Chinese nationals.

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Hammad | 8 years ago | Reply @Yasir: 60% of population of Pakistan, and the rest 40% population serving that 60%

Seeme | 8 years ago | Reply @khan: Neglected? Gawadar is not on Mars!!

Malik Saab | 8 years ago | Reply @Usman 786: Karachi do not pay any tax on its own, rather it is a collecting point for the taxes on Imports and Exports destined to all parts of the country. Moreover KSE is situated there and major companies declare their revenue there. But from where the multinationals earn the most?. Then it is Punjab where Major population is situated. But do you know that the major exports of Pakistan ( Rice = 100 Percent, Cotton 80 percent, Yarn and Taxtiles= 80 percent, small scale engineering goods = 80 Percent ) come from Punjab.? These exports make up more than 70 percent of the total exports of our country. Their taxes are deducted by FBR at the Karachi port. But the fact remains that Punjab produces 60 percent of the GDP of Pakistan. Karachi is just like Hong Kong of Pakistan.

Syed Moibullah | 8 years ago | Reply Its a dalema to see the populas of balochistan being niglected time and again !

Pashtun Baloch | 8 years ago | Reply The port without which there would be no CPEC (Gwadar) & the natural resources without which the Chinese would never have invested a dime in Pakistan are in Balochistan but yet we get less than 10% of Chinese investment & Punjab gets 50%. How is that fai? And then Pakistanis wonder why we want independence from them.

Titan | 8 years ago | Reply The Punjabi establishment of Pakistan has made a strategy to sell other provinces of Pakistan in bits & pieces to the Chinese.

PrasadDeccani | 8 years ago | Reply Project assignments by number is good, but, can somebody give state-wise percentage by $ amounts please?

Urban Legend | 8 years ago | Reply For few of us who are trying to make sense of Punjab benefiting investments as it (in)correctly has over 50% population... before 1971, GoP ignored the population as a factor for allocation of resources as it went in favour of the then Bangladesh. We saw what/why happened. Once Pakistan was divided, the resource allocation formula was immediately changed and made on population basis. Each time (pre and post division), Punjab was made to benefit.

Raj - USA | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab gets all benefits for giving away the rest of Pakistan to China.

Proud Baloch | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab has only 23% land area of Pakistan but gets 55% of CPEC money. Baluchistan has 40% land area of Pakistan but gets less than 10% of CPEC money. We will not allow this injustice any longer. We want freedom from Pakistan & the Punjabis who control it.

Rafay | 8 years ago | Reply @Sami: If this mind prevail, then one day punjab will be the only province of Pakistan

Haji Atiya | 8 years ago | Reply @Sami: That can change in the blink of an eye...or is it that most of the terrorist activities in Pakistan are actually facilitated by the Punjabi Taliban ? Nawaz Sharif behaves less as PM of the country and more like the Mayor of Lahore !

Usman 786 | 8 years ago | Reply @Malik Saab.. ..Punjab is more than 55 percent of Pakistan and supports 60 percent of the total GDP of our country... If we are to use your logic, considering that Karachi pays way more income tax than Lahore, how come all the public transport infrastructure funding goes to Punjabi Lahore than to Sindh/Mohajir Karachi? Compare the pathetic state of public transportation of Karachi to that of Lahore. Open your eyes!!

Khan | 8 years ago | Reply China PUNJAB Economic Corridor (CPEC). Punjab has always grabbed resources. Indeed Punjab has the largest population, but this does not mean to Eat everything and leave other underpriviliged areas as it is. Punjabis are our own brothers and our own people but the allocation of resources should be even between brothers. Backwardness and area distribution should also be taken into account, not just population.

Frank | 8 years ago | Reply Yes, Punjab is 65% of Pakistan's population but Punjab is 0% of the direct route from Kashgar to Gawadar. The lion's share of this investment should have gone to Gilgit-Baltisan, KPK and Balochistan. But nothing but injustice and incompetence can be expected from the Sharif family.

irfan | 8 years ago | Reply JincZhen Camao and Mohamad Osman two frustrated Indian with their fake facebook account .

B | 8 years ago | Reply What will be the average wage of these 16,703 security personnel?

Aamir S | 8 years ago | Reply @khan: Everyone very conveniently forgets that the punjab has more than 50% of pakistan's population. So naturally 50% of cpec should be built in punjab. Also, mega projects require a certain basic level of infrastructural development. Punjab is the most capable of sustaining such projects because it has better basic infrastructure. What balochistan needs is basic development, not mega projects. In other words, you have to have a foundation before you can build a 100 storey building.

Karachiite | 8 years ago | Reply Pakistan will become ONE COUNTRY, ONE NATION when those in power (uniformed or civilians) recognize that there are other provinces and people in the country too. Karachi is the biggest example of how a mega city is systemically destroyed and how investments are focused towards Lahore. Pity

Ch. Allah Daad | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab got lion"s share because Punjab is 60% of Pakistan and Punjabis are over 80% in security forces. Beside these figures, Punjab is more peaceful and more progressive than rest of Pakistan. Above all Punjab's Chief Minister is best Chief Minister compared to other provinces.

Pakistani | 8 years ago | Reply I think Government and Security Officials know better than us. And they will do which is good for Pakistan. We should not fight with each other and try to be united. If even Punjab is Progressing its mean that Pakistan is Progressing... May Allah help us to be United as Pakistani Nation.

mehmood | 8 years ago | Reply quantity of project does not matters.. it is the impact nd size of each project which matters..if we calculate share with these parameter thn punjb willl get 90 percent share,,,

mehmood | 8 years ago | Reply projects which r assigned to kpk are also federal subject i-e energy.. production generation nd distribuion willl be in controll of center..so kpk will only benefit of 11 percent frm kpk projcts in job generation..secondly there is no single project in kp portion which can boost local buisness.. thirdly the potion of coridor which passes through kpk cant be passed from somewhere else.so it is allocated to kp out of compusion not under fair distribution...

Fahim Shah | 8 years ago | Reply @Yasir: You would know that Punjab is 60 % of population when all of Pakistan run on guesswork. The last time a proper population census was done was in nearly 20 years ago,and even than in 1998 itwas 7 years late. Most confident estimate of academics is tha population of Punjab is 41% of Pakistan.,so where you get the concocted figure of 60 %.

Shuaib | 8 years ago | Reply It's not about the number of projects but cost of projects. The largest amount of money has been allocated to Sindh.

Kabir | 8 years ago | Reply When more than 50% population belongs to the Punjab then it deserves 50% of the projects unders Cpec. One also considers man power and benefits before executing plans. Gwadar is in balochistan and this port city will flourish like Karachi, this alone is enough to accommodate balochis otherwise they will say, "we are being turned into minority in our own province".

PakPower | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab and Sindh make the bulk of the populations and have the best security situation among all provinces so it makes sense for the Chinese to protect their investments. *Half of the CPEC projects are power plants that are going to output power to the national grid. *The other half are infrastructural projects pertaining to ports, railways, and roads (with motorways across all provinces). That are ultimately going to link the whole country together.

r | 8 years ago | Reply punjab is pakistan and pakistan is punjab.

Muhammad shah | 8 years ago | Reply this discrimination is not a new one it has become a culture of our dears Punjabi elite class. in fact, it would continue till the division of Punjab province into three or four provinces As the lions shares always goes to LAHORE not to the SARAIKIES. and POTOHARIES. the main reason behind this inequality is the imbalance of power in our country. EXAMPLE. the majority of the decision makers of the country are from Punjab Particularly from Lahore.The Lahori Bureaucracy both civilian and defence are deciding about the Future of BALOCHISTAN.. PAKHTOONKHWA and SINDH. so in this scenerio How we can think about justice. if we want the GOOD image of our country abroad and want prosperity of the country then we should provide equal opportunity otherwise there would be no bright future of our country

Malik Saab | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab is more than 55 percent of Pakistan and supports 60 percent of the total GDP of our country. With that percentage it is alright. CPEC is a Chinese investment. They are not stupid to set up an industrial state in the middle of Balochistan where there is no Water and human resource. Desert regions cannot have industrial zones. All those who are complaining are living in a fools world. All those complaining should Ask Chinese investors that why they are investing like that?. It is the Chinese investment and they are the decision makers on all the projects. If smaller provinces have arguments then convince the Chinese. Federal government is just security to the Investors. They are not the one deciding how and where to invest.

Sindhu | 8 years ago | Reply It should be renamed as China PUNJAB economic corridor!

Sami | 8 years ago | Reply Punjab is the only safe province in Pakistan. The Chinese know it.

Yasir | 8 years ago | Reply 60 percent popultion but 50 percent share. Punjab has given up its share for smaller provinces. Power projects provide output to National grid so the point becomes moot.

Buzzkill | 8 years ago | Reply Time for Baluchistan, Sindh, KP & PoK to get freedom from Punjab. This exploitation can't continue for long.

Black Hawk | 8 years ago | Reply It seems Pakistani leaders have learned absolutely nothing from the disaster of 1971. Back then East Pakistan was plundered of its resources while all the progress & money went to West Pakistan. Now all the progress & money is going to Punjab while other provinces are being plundered. The end result will be the same.

Qadir khan kakar | 8 years ago | Reply @Shah g: That's the point dear...

Qadir khan kakar | 8 years ago | Reply According to official statistics, out of the total of 330 projects under CPEC, 176 are in Punjab while only eight projects have been allocated for Balochistan. Punjab is pakistan and pakistan is punjab. Still is it a game changer foe BALOCHISTAN? PM you should be ashamed of yourself. Your the PM of Pakistan not punjab but your mentality is weak my dear PM. YOU SHOULD MAKE MOTORWAYS INSTEAD OF NATION...

khan | 8 years ago | Reply It's such a shame to see the Balochistan, neglected again and again. This deprivation has made them what they are today( anti-Pakistan) and Government is fuelling already(their) enormous rage. It's really embarrassing to see that the real possessors of Gawadar port, Sui Gas and Minerals have nothing to gain from CPEC than few pennies or from their own belongings.

Shah g | 8 years ago | Reply So why are terrorist activities happening in kpk and balochistan if all of the CPEC projects are in punjab. Point to ponder

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