Criticizing the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government for undermining the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday revealed that Beijing had The establishment was warned. Against any “new experience” ahead of the 2018 general elections.
Speaking during program, the PML-N leader said, “China diplomatically tried to [message] the then establishment to avoid any new experiment because This will derail CPEC.”
However, the then establishment assured Beijing that whoever came to power would not stand in the way of mega infrastructure and connectivity projects.
The planning minister added that Beijing had asked the establishment not to interfere in the elections as “any change experiment will not be beneficial for Pakistan and will destroy the CPEC”.
In response to a question, the minister emphasized the need for continuity of policies for the development and growth of the country.
Launching a fresh attack against the former ruling party, the PML-N minister accused PTI of scandalizing the game-changer project. He added that allegations of corruption were leveled against the project and the western media highlighted the controversial statements of PTI leaders.
Murad Saeed made baseless allegations of corruption against him in CPEC and embarrassed the Chinese state-owned company.
It may be the first time that a state-owned Chinese company has issued a statement condemning a minister it was working with.
He said that the PTI-led government has hurt the sentiments of Muslim League-N with baseless allegations, delay in renewal of visas of Chinese workers and other tactics.
It may be mentioned here that the PDM-led government has been accusing the former ruling party of negative policies regarding mega projects and discouraging international investment. He has been claiming that Chinese-funded projects, especially CPEC, were stalled during the PTI regime.
The current coalition government led by PML-N has continuously criticized PTI for not working on CPEC.
A few days ago, while addressing the ceremony to mark the completion of the decade of signing of CPEC, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the mega project helped Pakistan to develop in the region and the world.
He lamented that the previous government had created misunderstandings about the project which led to slow implementation.
The planning minister at the time said that unfortunately the project was scandalized by the previous government and was completely ignored.
Even as investors left Pakistan, the game-changer CPEC project suffered a lot, he said, adding that the present government had made efforts during the last one year to bring the project back on track.
“For the last one year, we have tried our best to bring CPEC back on track and gain investors’ confidence,” he added.
The Minister said that after 2018 CPEC was not given proper attention and the projects abandoned by the previous region during the last four years were prioritized by the present government during the last one year.
