KARACHI:
The memorandum of understanding of the Lahore Orange Train project, signed by Pakistan and China in May 2014, states that the project will be financed by China’s Exim Bank for a soft loan of $1.55 billion. It is the State of Pakistan which was signatory to it and the loan will be repaid by this country alone, irrespective of whether or not the previous government, which initiated this project, is a political adversary of the present. The fact remains that trial runs and tests began in March 2018, and even after a passage of over 31 months the project remains suspended.
Regrettably, it is the people of Lahore who are suffering from constant traffic jams and increased pollution because of construction, now spread over several years. In retrospect, it is rather hilarious that creating barriers in others’ initiatives is a common practice in Pakistan. The debate on whether these projects should have been built in the first place is just political gimmickry, after billions have been spent on them. Now that they have been built, how does it serve the national interest to keep them in limbo? Why is it that projects for common citizens becomes an issue of debate while state land worth trillions of rupees on the market are doled out to the paid elite who have already been beneficiaries of subsidised plots and houses?
Money could have been raised by selling expensive real estate at prevailing market rates to fund welfare projects for education, health and basic necessities of life such as clean drinking water, but unfortunately greed has taken the most of our ruling elite, who wait eagerly to pounce at every opportunity to accumulate wealth, land and power. The common citizens remain mere pawns in the whole game of chess.
M T Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2020.
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