A work in progress

Given the scale and breadth of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, it is unsurprising that there is a need to make amendments in it as time goes by. There has been a lack of transparency from the outset, and some of that opacity is now coming home to roost as difficulties emerge. CPEC is made up of a host of projects large and relatively small, with the largest of them being among the biggest infrastructure constructions that Pakistan has ever made. One such is the expansion and reconstruction of the Karachi-Lahore-Peshawar railway line known as the Main Line 1 project (ML1) projected at $9 billion. It is likely that at least one energy project of 1,320MW is also going to get back-burnered.

Corrective measures are being taken in the light of criticism of the last government in that it did not fully protect the interests of Pakistan when the $46 billion worth of deals under the One-Belt-One-Road (OBOR) initiative were signed. The government is now exploring the possibility of completing the ML1 on a build-operate-transfer basis. This emerged after the 56^th monthly progress review of CPEC and there is to be a new working group (yet another working group), this one to look at deepening cooperation in education, health, agriculture and housing which is something of an expansion of the CPEC envelope.

The previous government made a number of puzzling omissions in respect of assessing the flow of traffic on the cargo routes, and there appears to be no scientific projection of the volume of traffic coming from China on two $6 billion road projects. Internal wrangles between the railways and the Ministry of Finance as to which actually ‘owns’ the loan that underwrites the ML1 project continue, and there is possibly a need to undertake a new feasibility study. It is increasingly evident that there is going to be little that is straightforward about the CPEC project in all its manifestations, great and not so great. The PTI government needs to have its hands where everybody can see them and leave conjuring acts to magicians.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2018.

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