Members of opposition staged a token walkout from the Senate on Tuesday over alleged violation of consensus evolved on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by the government. An All-Party Conference (APC) convened on May 28 this year helped evolve a consensus on projects to be carried out under the CPEC but the opposition parties said in the Senate "the consensus on the CPEC is being blatantly violated by the concerned government departments."
Senator Taj Haider said the government has started work only on eastern-route of the CPEC while it is completely ignoring development projects on the western route. "We have tried to draw attention of the prime minister towards the matter of grave public concern through a letter but unfortunately we have received no reply yet on it," he said. He accused the government of carrying out only 'early-harvest' projects on the eastern-route of the CPEC that is in complete violation of the consensus evolved by all political parties on the project. Speaking on the issue, Senator Farhatullah Babar said the prime minister should come to the Upper House and take all the members into confidence over the CPEC.
"If consensus erodes, it will not only harm the CPEC but also the integrity of the country," he said. Some other members also spoke on the issue and stressed that the government should also start development projects on western-route of the CPEC. Responding to all the viewpoints, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said the consensus evolved on the CPEC on All-Party Conference is being implemented in letter and spirit.
"There is absolutely no change in the route of the corridor," he said while rejecting all allegations as baseless and unfounded. He said the CPEC is not the name of a road or a route. It is a comprehensive concept and framework of development. He said under the CPEC the work is going on in four departments including development of Gwadar port, energy projects, infrastructure development and industrial development.
Gwadar-Quetta road will be completed by December next, he said, adding that a joint parliamentary committee and the Senate committees on CPEC are visiting the route of corridor next month. Ahsan Iqbal said out of $46 billion Chinese investment, $38 billion will be invested in energy projects. Earlier, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, informed the Senate that the current foreign exchange reserves stand at 20.07 billion dollars.
He was responding to a call attention notice of Usman Saifullah Khan regarding increase in public indebtedness to foreigners on account of the recent issuance of Eurobond worth $500 million by the government of Pakistan at a substantial interest rate of 8.5 percent per annum. The minister said the country's economy has improved which was acknowledged by 22 international financial institutions. He said the Pakistan's economy has been internationally declared as stable. He said the whole transaction of issuance of Eurobonds worth $500 million was conducted in a transparent manner.
On the National Finance Commission Award (NFC-Award), Dar said the commission is incomplete at the moment as Punjab has yet to nominate its member for it. "As soon as the commission gets complete, I'll write to the prime minister and the President for the award," he said. He also said that his government wants to fairly distribute all resources among the provinces under the NFC Award and efforts are already under way in this regard.
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