Western passage of CPEC to be completed by 2018: PM

Forms 11-member panel to oversee construction, consult stakeholders

ISLAMABAD:

Days after the government had failed to assuage the concerns of an all parties’ conference (APC) on the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif scrapped a proposal for establishing 12 special economic zones in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as he set a July 2018 deadline to complete the western passage of the corridor with a high-powered committee to oversee it.

Chairing an all parties’ conference in the PM House on Friday – attended by the chief ministers of Balochistan and K-P — the premier heard the concerns of political leaders and the government of K-P over the corridor.



Earlier in the week, the planning and development minister, Ahsan Iqbal, had failed to assuage the concerns of an all parties’ conference (APC) on the multibillion-dollar project that they claim will only benefit Punjab.

The APC had called upon the government to give preference to the western route of CPEC in accordance with a commitment he had made at an earlier APC in May, last year.

After deliberations, the PM set a two-and-a-half-year term for completion of the Western route of the CPEC - which he would personally oversee — and formed a high-powered 11-member committee to hold periodic consultations with the provinces on matters pertaining to CPEC. The committee, headed by the PM, will include chief ministers of all the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan in addition to federal ministers of planning, water and power, railways, communications and the chairman of the parliamentary committee on CPEC.

Chairman of the parliamentary committee on CPEC, Mushahid Hussain Syed, told the The Express Tribune that he had floated the idea of a high-powered committee which was readily accepted by the prime minister. “There should be institutionalised decision-making through consultations and consensus” he added.



National Party’s Hasil Bazinjo demanded that all issues pertaining to Gwadar should be raised in the parliamentary body, which too was accepted by Nawaz. Sources added that one of the major bones of contentions during Friday’s consultations were the establishment of the special economic zones along CPEC’s route. In this regard politicians from K-P and Balochistan expressed their concerns and demanded that the list of 12 proposed sites which had been issued by the PM House a few days ago should be scrapped.

During a meeting with Chinese investors on Monday, a list of 12 economic zones prepared by the Board of Investment had been unveiled which detailed seven sites in K-P and five in Balochsitan.

Nawaz acquiesced to the demands and agreed to scrap the list.  “The location of industrial parks will be decided in consultation with the provinces,” the communique added.

Sources said that after Iqbal raised his concerns on this, after which it was amended to include condition that “provision of allied facilities and infrastructure for these industrial parks would be the responsibility of the federal and provincial governments according to their respective roles.”

While the prime minister agreed to prioritise the Western alignment of CPEC with a provision to expand the Rs40b allocation for this alignment as per requirement, he said that in the first phase it would only be limited to a four-lane expressway. However, it could be expanded to a six-lane motorway but responsibility of finalising land acquisition for this would have to be borne by K-P while the centre would provide the funds for it.

A cell will be created in the planning ministry to coordinate and share information with the respective provinces.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.