CM Murad says Sindh secured major success
by getting three projects included in CPEC
KARACHI: Former president and Co-chairman of Pakistan People's Party Asif Ali Zardari has said that it was the previous PPP government in the country that had initiated the work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. “We want this project should be completed at the earliest without any hurdle."
“We have placed our advertisement in history by proposing the idea of and the policy of CPEC. Now we have nothing to do with whomsoever trying to take credit in the media by publishing advertisements,” said the former president. He said the Pakistan People's Party has devised a three-phased strategy against the government.
The former president was addressing a meeting of lawmakers of PPP belonging to Sindh at the Bilawal House convened here on Wednesday to brief the concerned legislators of the party on the progress in building the CPEC project in the backdrop of the recent visit of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to China.
The former president said on the occasion that the PPP would extend all sorts of required cooperation for the completion of the CPEC project. He said the PPP would play the desired role for the cause of CPEC.
He said that CPEC would prove to be a game-changer in the economic terms as completion of this project would benefit hundreds of countries. He said that the CPEC project would open a new avenue of progress in Pakistan.
He said that rulers of the country were under obligation to resolve the reservations of smaller provinces regarding the project. He said the Pakistani economy would be promoted on an unprecedented scale with development to be achieved through the completion of CPEC.
The former president said that his opposition political party would raise the issue of CPEC in parliament in case the federal government didn’t take into confidence the provincial government and parliamentary parties on the issue. Zardari, however, said that neither his political party would do politics on the issue nor it would let the issue of CPEC get politicised.
He appreciated the performance of the Sindh chief minister, who in his recent visit to China was successful in getting three projects of the province included in CPEC. “We all are owners of CPEC as one has to write a book first before delivering a talk on CPEC,” he said. The former president said that some 500 Chinese had done PhD on Pakistan and now they were doing conversation in the Urdu language.
He said that former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had done negotiations with China and secured the K-2 mountain for the country, which showed the magnanimity of China. “After becoming the president, I visited China,” he said.
He said that the late Benazir Bhutto had envisioned power generation projects of 50,000 megawatts capacity. "Benazir Bhutto had given the Marshall Plan for the development of the country but her government had been dismissed prematurely.
“We showed foresightedness as our coastline is situated relatively near to the central China,” said Zardari. He said the PPP’s government had entered into currency swap agreements with China, Sri Lanka, and Iran.
He said that power projects should be situated near coalfields if electricity generation had to be done on the basis of coal. He said that some 350,000 acres of land in the province had vanished due to sea intrusion. “We tried to reclaim this land by constructing Zufikarabad (a new town near Thatta) on coastal belt but negative publicity was done for this project."
Earlier, briefing the participants of the meeting, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah said that recently-held meeting of Joint Cooperation Committee of CPEC had approved inclusion of three projects of the province in the corridor project. These projects are the Karachi Circular Railway, Special Economic Zone project at Dhabeji, and power plant and development of Keti Bandar.
He said the Sindh government had secured a major success by getting three projects included in the CPEC. He said that completion of these projects would ensure prosperity in the province along with generation of employment opportunities and poverty alleviation. He quoted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had said in 1968 that only China had power that enabled her to help Pakistan.
He said that former president Asif Ali Zardari had laid the foundation stone of CPEC by handing over the Gwadar Port to China. He said that 64 countries of the world would be inter-connected through the CPEC. He said that two cities of the province, Karachi and Sukkur, were included in CPEC. He said that several projects proposed by the Punjab government could not be included in the CPEC due to defective strategy adopted by the PML-N's provincial government.
