‘No diversion made in route of Khanjrab-Gwadar Economic Corridor’

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal assured the Senate Tuesday that no diversion had been made in the original route of the Khanjrab-Gwadar Economic Corridor but noted for interim period Pakistan would benefit from the existing motorways.
However, the opposition senators, particularly those belonging to Awami National Party (ANP) rejected his assurance and warned that Pakistan might not remain united if the original route was changed to the benefit of Punjab at the cost of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Opposition senators forced early adjournment of the sitting, after making exit from the Senate, leading to lack of quorum, as a result Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal could not complete his statement in response to the ANP senators’ calling attention notice. Haji Muhammad Adeel and Ilyas Bilour were the movers, who insisted the route had been changed and called it a conspiracy.
While denying any diversion had been made in the corridor, the minister clarified that the corridor was not the name of any single alignment, as it had multiple routes and the only objective was that Pakistan should benefit from trade between China and the Central Asian Republics, as it would be routed through it.
He said the estimated cost of the project was $11 billion, which Pakistan could neither finance, because of the state of its economy nor loans could be obtained to do so, therefore, work on it would continue slowly and the corridor on its completion in 3-4 years would be a milestone the foundation of which had been laid by the incumbent government.
The minister explained that the corridor was made up of various alignments and one of these was connecting Gwadar with the north for which China had asked for detailed study of this new alignment.
As the minister continued his statement, the ANP senators stood up and triggered pandemonium in the House and then walked out, along with other opposition senators. ANP Senator Amar Jeet pointed out lack of quorum: bells were rung for five minutes and when count was made, required 26 senators were not present in the House, forcing the chair to adjourn the sitting till Wednesday afternoon.
Ahsan Iqbal said the project would be a sea-change and some powers were opposed to it, as previously, when the president of China was about to visit Pakistan and he could not because of the sit-in and now again, when there was talk of his visit again, same forces wanted to create misunderstanding about it.
The Senate witnessed two walk-outs against what they alleged the diversion in the original route of Khanjrab-Gwadar Economic Corridor. The first was led by the treasury Senator Abdul Rauf from Balochistan, who was joined by all the opposition senators. The second was led by ANP senators.
The treasury received a minor set-back when one of its members Senator Humayun Mandokhail, who is to retire in March, switched over to the opposition benches, expressing no-confidence in the PML-N government, citing many issues including poor governance.
He was led to the opposition by Leader of Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan. Mandokhail had written to the Senate chairman in this context two weeks back.The House was informed during the question hour that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had undertaken 20 foreign visits: the expenditure details of 16 of these were mentioned in the written reply given by minister for foreign affairs. Rs294 million were incurred on these visits.
However, details of his visit to China, Germany, Nepal in November last and to United Kingdom in December late year are being awaited. The visit to China in July 2013, cost Rs26.2 million, Turkey in September 2013 cost Rs11.9 million, USA (68th UNGA) in September 2013 cost Rs91.6 million, USA again in October 2013 cost Rs35 million, UK in October 2013 cost Rs30.9 million, Sri Lanka in November 2013 cost Rs11.8 million, Thailand in November 2013 cost Rs9.7 million, Afghanistan in November 2013 cost Rs1.4 million, Turkey in February 2014 cost 6.9 million, The Hague in March 2014 cost Rs12.5 million, China in April cost Rs11.7 million, UK in April-May cost Rs2.5 million, Iran in May cost Rs2.6 million, India (oath-taking ceremony of Indian PM) in May cost Rs4.3 million, Tajikistan in June cost Rs3.7 million, USA (69th UNGA ) in September cost Rs31.7 million.
Opposition senators decried the illegal and unjustified massive increases in toll tax and called for its review after there had been huge fall in rates of petroleum products. Those who spoke included Talha Mehmood, Haji Muhammad Adeel, Kamil Ali Agha and Ghulam Ali. Minister Incharge Sh. Aftab Ahmad tried to defend the increases.
On a point of order, PPP’s Saeed Ghani alleged that the Gilgit-Baltistan 12-memeber care-taker cabinet should be disbanded, as it consisted of representatives of PML-N and Jamaat-e-Islami and their allies, as fresh polls were to be held in March there.
Ghani noted initially the prime minister formed a five-member cabinet and then added another seven to it after objections were raised on their credentials by Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah, whereas the PPP-led coalition government had ten-member cabinet, which completed its five-year term.
He said it was a good opportunity for the rulers here to prove that they could conduct free and fair election in the region by making a small cabinet of neutral persons.It was unbelievable for many when the politics of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry was brought to the Senate. Veteran Senator Ilyas Bilour raised the issue of his breach of privilege by a senior official of the Ministry of Commerce and wanted the matter be referred to the House privilege committee.
On this, Senator Ghulam Ali of JUI-F, who himself has been the Federation’s president, alleged that the real issue was of Bilour’s letter to the official concerned, asking him to grant vote to his spouse, who declined to do so, citing rules and this angered him to bring this issue to the House.Bilour did not contradict the senator’s statement. However, the matter was referred to the concerned committee by the chair.