Unequal CPEC distribution: Alliance set to launch protest campaign

PESHAWAR: An alliance of political parties and civil society organisations announced an agitation campaign across the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Monday against unequal distribution of projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The alliance – called the Corridor Front – includes the Awami Workers’ Party and the main faction of the ANP.

Leaders of the front, addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, said that they opposed an upcoming all-party conference arranged by the federal government on CPEC.

The front’s convener Dr Said Alam Mehsud criticised Chief Minister Parvez Khattak for compromising with the federal government at the sixth Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of China and Pakistan in Beijing.

Before the JCC meeting, the provincial government was opposing the alleged change of CPEC’s western route and criticised the federal government on various forums.

Mehsood said that the chief minister and the K-P government had radically changed their stance despite knowing that nothing had been approved for the province during the JCC meeting.

“We wonder which projects’ inclusion had led to the change in the provincial government’s stance.”

Furthermore, he opposed the new APC on CPEC and said that the APC had been called just to get the K-P government to declare their approval of the decisions made in the sixth JCC meeting.

Accusing the CM of having turned down resolution tabled in the provincial assembly, he said that none of the provincial government’s demands had been accepted.

Discussing the front’s agitation plans, he said that the Front had divided the province into eight zones and they have persuaded tribal elders to mobilise public opinion against the existing CPEC routes.

Moreover, he said, the Front would first create public awareness and subsequently, stage a sit-in outside the K-P assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2017.