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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa govt accuses centre of reneging on CPEC pledges

Islamabad - The chief minister announced that all relevant forums would be used by the KP government to protect the rights of the province.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is claiming to have "unearthed" an alleged federal government plan for depriving the province of its due share in the context of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects despite the announcements and commitments that were made publicly earlier.
An official handout in Peshawar said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak decided to stage widespread protests against what he called the "deceitful act" on the part of the federal government.
The chief minister announced that all relevant forums would be used by the KP government to protect the rights of the province.
Pervez Khattak said that all parliamentary parties in the provincial assembly would be taken onboard for this unprecedented protest. He warned that the KP government would withdraw its cooperation being extended for executing the CPEC project if its reservations were not addressed.
He said as part of its protest, the KP government might the stop land acquisition process for the KP portion of the project. It was disclosed by Dr Said Alam Mahsud, a political activist and leader of the civil society organisation Ulasi Tehrik, that the federal government had allocated only 1.4 per cent for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa compared to Punjab that would be getting 80.4 per cent of the total budget allocation of Rs359 billion for 2015-17.
He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's share would be spent on the only hydropower project of Suki Kinari in Mansehra district. The meeting was informed that the six key components of CPEC had also been changed in favour of Punjab while the Dera Ismail Khan-Mianwali-Burhan link of the western route was also missing in the latest map of CPEC route, which was kept secret by the federal government.
It was revealed that Mianwali was being linked with Islamabad through another road being constructed at a cost of Rs10 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme.
Quoting the documents of the Planning Commission of Pakistan and some other sources, Dr Said Alam Mahsud said the total cost of CPEC had been calculated at $145 billion that would be extended to the government of Pakistan in shape of loan. He said the promised $500 billion Chinese investment would be made only at the start and end points of corridor and that too not before the year 2024.
It was also revealed that Rs95 billion (51.35 per cent) of the total Rs185 billion budget earmarked for the current year for the Motorway project of the corridor would be spent on the eastern route while the remaining 48.65 per cent budget would be utilised for connecting Lahore with Gwadar and Karakoram Highway. - news@khaleejtimes.com

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