Deliberations on CPEC: Khattak satisfied with JCC meeting outcome

K-P CM signs MoU for student exchange with China’s Shandong University

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak has expressed satisfaction over the outcome of deliberations at the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting in Beijing.

The JCC on Thursday approved in principle three major developmental projects for K-P under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework. These include the 1,700-megawatt hydel power project, a circular railway track between Peshawar-Charsadda-Nowshera-Mardan and Swabi and establishment of a state-of-the-art economic zone along the Motorway.

According to handout, the K-P government is confronting the federal government over CPEC’s western route while the speaker of the provincial assembly, Asad Qaiser, filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court in this regard.

Sources in the provincial energy and power department said that the construction of 10 hydel projects had been proposed under CPEC.

“These projects have been approved and will be built under the CPEC, but their modalities will be decided later,” said a senior official of the power department.

The handout stated that during the course of the meetings, the K-P CM floated the idea of a future alternative route, connecting Kashghar in China via Khunjerab-Bisham-Swat-Chakdara and Gilgit-Chitral and Chakdara.

The JCC also agreed to build a fast dual railway track between Peshawar and Karachi and Peshawar-Dera Ismail Khan, besides dualising the Indus Highway connecting Peshawar with DI Khan and onward to Karachi.

Khattak signed an MoU for a student exchange programme with China’s Shandong University. Under the arrangement, students from across the province would be eligible to visit the Shandong University.

A centre of studies on the Confucius school of thought would also be set up in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2016.