Western route of CPEC: Senate Special body shows reservations over slow pace of work

Senate Special Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has shown serious reservations over the slow pace of work on western route of the project, saying that if the officials concerned did not remove their reservations the committee members will lodge a formal complain with the Prime Minister.
The committee, which met here with Senator Taj Haider in the chair, discussed the CPEC project. The committee members said that if the National Highway Authority (NHA) officials and the Ministry of Communication failed addressing members' concerns in the next meeting, the committee will meet with the Premier to remind him about the decisions taken by the All Parties Conference (APC) on the issue.
They said that the government should increase allocation of funds in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2015-16 for both western and eastern routes. Senator Taj Haider, convenor of the committee, said that keeping in view of the importance of the project, more allocations were needed to complete it as soon as possible.
He suggested launching of a special package for the well-being of local people as most of them were living below the poverty line. Senator Chaudhry Tanvir suggested linking Gwadar to the national grid immediately and construction of a railway line from Dalbandin to Gwadar to link the area with the rest of the country.
Senator Usman Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) said that the government was backtracking from the decision made at APC and claimed that the government had completely ignored the western route as not a single penny was allocated for it. Kakar while expressing his concerns over non-allocation of funds for the Western route of the CPEC project said that the government itself was making the project controversial.
"For God sake, make the CPEC a project for Pakistan and don't compel the small provinces to call it China Punjab Economic Corridor (CPEC)," Senator Usman Kakar said. Kakar said that the distance of railway track from Quetta to Peshawar is 900 km while the length of the track from Quetta via Lahore to Islamabad is 1700 km but the government had given preference to the later one.
He said that the Federal Minister for Planning and Development was just playing with the words, as there was no allocation for the western route. "An impression was given that 10 percent of CPEC allocation will go to the western route but after going through government document it has now become clear that not even a single penny was allocated for the western route starting from Dera Ismail Khan to Khuzdar," Kakar claimed.
CPEC is not just a road but it will also bring a railway track and gas/oil pipeline. However, out of billion of rupees allocation for the railway track not a single rupee has been allocated for the western route's railway tracks, the committee members observed.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the government was not coming out clean on implementing the May 28 decision of the APC and raised several questions in this regard.
He said that the project mentioned in the PSDP 2015-16 as part of the western route were actually ongoing road and highways projects that have been lingering on for years and were not part of the Corridor project. He said even if these missing links were completed it will not be the same as the envisaged in Gwadar-Kashghar corridor that can be used by heavy 24- wheelers. For developing the western route on priority basis, the Gwadar- Kashghar road must be so designed that was usable for heavy transportation and not mere patch work of links that is used only for local instead of international connectivity.
Compared with this, he said, the eastern route comprised of motorways all along from Gwadar to Sukkur to Multan to Lahore and beyond. The different specifications of the two routes will automatically dictate the first choice to transporters resulting in the adoption of eastern route as the only route, he said.
He said that 359 billion rupees were allocated for the project in the budget for 2015-16. Out of this an amount of 185 billions were earmarked for highways and motorways relating to the corridor. The 185 billion is to be spent on Karachi-Lahore Motorway, the road connecting Gwadar with the coastal highway and the Thakot-Havelian-Islamabad section which is common to both western and eastern routes.
During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan earlier this year, Pakistani and Chinese officials signed a series of more than 50 accords to inaugurate the multi-billion dollar CPEC, which will create a network of roads, railways and pipelines linking China's restive west to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.
Unrest has been a major source of concern for the project. The military soon after the inauguration of the project during President Xi's visit had announced setting up a 10,000-strong special force for safeguard of projects to be carried out under the CPEC and the Chinese workers associated with them. The Chinese have been seriously following the security situation in the province. Chinese Vice-Minister for Security Dong Haizhou visited Pakistan in June for security-related briefings. Recently during his visit to Balochistan, Chief of Army Staff General Rahil Sharif has said the overall security situation in the province had noticeably improved.