Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi has sought Chinese envoy's help for the withdrawal of contract termination notice of Chinese company, which suspended work on Gomal Zam dam recently, informed sources told Business Recorder. Recently, Chinese state-owned company, the Sino-Hydro Corporation, wrote a letter to the Government of Pakistan, asking that their contract should be terminated as their workers were not ready to go back on work on a project where they lost one of their colleagues.
Sources said the minister met the Chinese envoy at his residence last week, asking him to use his resources to bring back the company on the project, adding the Chinese company's letter for the termination of contract was very disappointing for the authorities, sources added.
Sources also said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is expected to visit Beijing next month, would also take up the issue with the Chinese authorities.
The Sino-Hydro Corporation took this decision following the killing of one of its engineers on October 14, as a result of cross-firing between the security forces and the militants, who abducted two Chinese engineers, demanding the release of their close associates for the safe handing over of engineers to the authorities, said the sources, adding these two engineers were kidnapped while on their way to work at the Gomal Zam dam about 30-km of Southwest of Waziristan.
After the unfortunate incident, Pakistani authorities assured Beijing that the Chinese working here on the development projects would be protected at every cost, and provided additional security, but the new development disappointed the authorities, an official of the interior ministry said on condition of anonymity.
It may be mentioned here that the Chinese engineers working on the project had suspended operations after the killing of one of their colleagues. On Monday, the government in an inter-provincial meeting chaired by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao reiterated its resolve to provide extra-security to the Chinese workers engaged here in different projects.
The meeting was attended by the chief secretaries and Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) of four provinces and Northern Areas.