Addressing the concluding session of PSDE organised by PIDE in Islamabad recently, Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Planning and Development, said that Pakistan views the Iranian seaport of Chabahar as a complementing project to the CPEC and not as a competitor that will link the whole region. If implemented correctly, not only will the CPEC be a game-changer, it will also be a fate-changer. Over 10 years ago, the world was looking at Pakistan in view of its security situation but now every government or think-tank is looking for opportunities in this country that they can avail through the CPEC with everyone expressing the desire to join the project. The CPEC is not just about communication infrastructure and energy projects but is a framework that is characterised by a much broader and holistic approach. Infrastructure and energy are seen as important as they are the current bottlenecks for development. China is not considering Pakistan as a market but as a country with a shared destiny and Beijing is helping Islamabad expedite its development process by sharing with it development experience. On the same day, President Mamnoon Hussain also said in his address at the GIK Institute in Topi that CPEC would usher in a new era of industrial and technological revolution, prosperity and development in Pakistan.

The latest statements of the top functionaries of the government clearly give the impression that they are pinning all their hopes on the setting up of the CPEC for the rapid development of the country and relegating the domestic efforts and structural reforms to the back burner. This, in our view, is not a prudent decision or strategy. No country has ever developed by relying exclusively on the support of a foreign country. Yes, a foreign country or a multilateral financial institution could support the effort but only if its own interest is involved. Ahsan Iqbal has stated that China considers Pakistan as a country with a shared destiny. We also wish if it could be true but it is always the shared or mutual interests which matter in the context of a country's foreign policy paradigms. In any case, our main concern is that all the federal ministers and the Prime Minister are so much convinced about the utility of the project that they are not thinking about the structural weaknesses of the economy and the necessary harsh reforms measures but have gone to the extent of elevating the project's definition to 'a fate-changer' rather than 'a game-changer'. Another worry is that the status of relationship between two countries is never permanent and, as such, China or Pakistan could always slow down the progress on the project if there is some disagreement on some critical issues between the two countries. The PML-N government also seems to be very confident about foreign investment prospects through the CPEC. The latest data released by the SBP indicate that foreign direct investment (FDI) has, in fact, declined by 45 percent in the first five months of the current fiscal year over the same period of last year. Ahsan Iqbal's statement that Pakistan is considering Chabahar as a complementary project to the CPEC is also beyond comprehension when the comparison between the two projects does not corroborate such an assertion. Why would India involve itself in a project that could also serve Pakistan's interests? Finally, we feel that the CPEC is a project of great significance for Pakistan but to over-blow its importance on a repetitive basis is not advisable.