Dr Ahmad Rashid Malik<\/p>\n
Prevailing since 2014, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf\u2019s concerns over the CPEC are not over yet. PTI\u2019s Chairman, Imran Khan, keeps disputing the CPEC from different angles. Chinese Ambassador in Islamabad, Sun Weidong, met twice with Imran Khan in February and October 2016, where Imran Khan conveyed his concerns on the CPEC but it looks that such concerns were not removed. Once again, Imran Khan criticised the CPEC in the following tone: \u201chis party did not have anything against the CPEC but with the way the federal government was handling it.\u201d China is supposed to handle CPEC with the Federal Government and not with the provinces.
\nPresident Xi Jinping was scheduled to visit Pakistan in September 2014, but the PTI and allied parties staged a sit-in Islamabad, which made it impossible for President Xi to visit Pakistan at that time. That was a major blow to diplomacy and the CPEC. The visit was delayed for seven months, and the delayed CPEC was launched on 20 April 2015. The PTI made President Xi\u2019s visit controversial, objected on the Chinese assistance to Pakistan, and called CPEC package somewhat an expensive commercial loan to Pakistan. The PTI also lamented that the package was not an investment.
\nThe PTI policy on the CPEC keeps changing. There have been many twists and turns in the past two years. There will be no end, no matter how it will damage the country\u2019s image to China. The party has its unending list of demands that are keeping changing. Imran Khan has taken different stands on the CPEC. There are u-turns and changing ideologies of the PTI on the CPEC. The CPEC is not the exclusively KP-oriented, but it is about all the regions of the federating units.
\nThe main objection raised by Imran Khan was on the route of the CPEC. His first reaction came on 13 May 2015 when he talked about the \u2018\u2018shortest route\u2019\u2019 between Kashgar and Gwadar and to address poverty in such areas. Later, PTI stressed on the \u201cWestern Route\u201d. The Western Route is not the shortest but the longest involving more physical work and finances. The Western Route is not even economical and will require more travelling.
\nThe eastern and central routes are shortest and economical. His party stressed on the longest western route that mainly bypassed Punjab, and only part of this route goes through the Punjab. In another press conference held in Lahore in September 2015, Imran Khan warned that the eastern route for the CPEC might foster enmity between provinces and a \u201cbetter route\u201d should be found out.
\nIn May 2015, Imran Khan also started taking about the change of the \u201coriginal route\u201d, which was even not there at that time. He pointed out that the decision about the CPEC route took place in 2013, but the nation was kept in the dark about its actual route. Time and again, the government made it clear that there was no such \u201coriginal route\u201d.
\nIn November 2015, Imran Khan said that western route should be completed first by building routes only in KP and Balochistan. The irony of this fact is that even the western route cannot be built without going through the Punjab province such as districts of Bakkhar, Minawali, and Attock that are centrally located between KP and Balochistan.
\nOn the platform of the PTI, some of its members started calling the CPEC as the \u201cChina-Punjab Economic Corridor,\u201d giving a provincial hate to the mega national project. It is ironic if one goes through the tweets of the PTI supporters on the social media about the CPEC. The social media tweets sent negative messages to the Chinese officials and people.
\nParticipating at the All Parties Conference (APC) and addressing a press conference in Quetta in December 2015, Imran Khan said that \u201cour concerns on the CPEC project are similar to those the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the Kalabagh dam.\u201d He further stated that \u201cthe CPEC should benefit the people of Balochistan because Gwadar seaport, which was an integral part of the project belonged to them, adding that Baloch people should not be deprived of their due rights.\u201d Equating the CPEC with the Kalabagh dam was unfortunate.
\nThe fact remains that the CPEC equitably distributes finances and physical resources and industrial zones among all provinces. The share of the Balochistan in all such projects is greater than all other provinces at the moment and why the CPEC has not be termed as the \u201cChina-Balochistan Economic Corridor (CBEC)\u201d by opponents yet.
\nThe first APC on the CPEC was held on 13 May 2015 in Islamabad. The PTI boycotted the second and the third APC comprising all political parties on the CPEC. The second APC took place on 28 May 2015 in Islamabad, while the third one was convened on 15 January 2016 to achieve national consensus. Constant broken pledges, politicisation, provincialism, and agitation against the CPEC brought nothing but a disappointment to this mega national project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr Ahmad Rashid Malik Prevailing since 2014, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf\u2019s concerns over the CPEC are not over yet. PTI\u2019s Chairman, Imran Khan, keeps disputing the CPEC from different angles. Chinese Ambassador in Islamabad, Sun Weidong, met twice with Imran Khan in February and October 2016, where Imran Khan conveyed his concerns on the CPEC but it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article"},"yoast_head":"\n