Along the rocky road of CPEC

The corridor called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), often dubbed as a game changer for Pakistan, seems to be fraught with troubling tracks zigzagging along rocky, difficult paths. 

The project needs to be run in the most transparent manners so that the people of China and Pakistan know about terms of the projects. Contrary to this, the Pakistani government has been moving ahead on the project in the most suspicious manners clouding the public perceptions towards the project. 

In front of Chinese delegates, who are the smartest dealmakers on the earth, transparency would have helped the representatives of our side to be aware of pros and cons of deals. At least, in this world, nobody knows everything of all the things. We may know everything about something and something about everything. 

The first meaningful detail of CPEC emerged when the Senate learned that China would get 91 percent of the revenues to be earned from the Gwadar port and the remaining income – nine percent – would go to the Gwadar Port Authority. This arrangement would remain in place for 40 years. This dropped a bombshell on senators and the public at large, who felt just being robbed even before the start of the project. One senator pointed out India had struck a similar deal with China on easy terms. 

CPEC involves mega projects, which need months-long, if not years-long, planning, feasibility works and piloting, and all these well-established norms are being violated in the planning and execution of CPEC projects. Consider the project of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train project where the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) experts renegotiated with the Chines sides and succeeded in getting slashed Rs50 billion from the total project cost. Otherwise, the project had been signed and was at the execution stage when Nespak officials stepped in and got away with saving precious Rs50 billion. 

Now, we hear that Pakistan was pressed hard to surrender more concessions to the Chinese investors in certain projects at the 7th joint cooperation committee (JCC) meeting of CPEC. Of them, one is Diamer-Bhasha Dam, followed by Karachi-to-Peshawar railway line upgrade project, energy projects and industrial parks in different cities.   

A well-worded note for the anxious press crops should have been issued at the end of the JCC meeting. Now, through leaked minutes of the meeting, the press reported that Chines had come up with some hard terms, which Pakistan was reluctant to accept. Both sides also differed on the terms related to the Karachi-Peshawar railway line project, or the Main Line 1 project, besides the Karachi circular railway. The JCC meeting ended without signing the project documents. That is not bad. Striking a bad deal is worse than having no deal at all. 

CPEC is to remain in place for the years to come and it is prudent for both sides to inch towards the terms of reference carefully. An all win-win situation for China will also hurt the project. The corridor should have a win-win bargain for either side and for that it is necessary for the Chinese side to be considerate towards the taker – Pakistan. 

There is bloodbath in Balochistan

Bloodbath is fast becoming a synonym for Balochistan. 

The province bleeds on so many fronts every other day: police officials, paramilitary personnel, Hazara people, laborers workers on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Punjabi settlers. 

On Wednesday, a police officer with his family – wife, son, and granddaughter - was shot at and killed in a targeted killing whereas one onlooker was also injured, for being at a wrong place at the wrong time, in the gun attack in Nawan Killi area.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abdul Razzaq Cheema said the two people riding a motorcycle targeted the family in a drive-by shooting. Earlier, police were in the mourning, when a DIG and two others were attacked and killed in a blast in the city last week. If well-guarded police officers had no escape from the blood-thirsty assailants, what to say of the laborers working on a CPEC projects who were killed in a duck shooting in Kech district on Wednesday. Levies found bullet-riddled bodies. According to a DawnNews report, the deceased were from Punjab and working on a CEPC project. In earlier weeks, Hazara people were gunned down.  

As is the norm, a high-level crackdown ensues whenever there is a high profile murder in a targeted killing, government functionaries religiously followed the rituals and vowed to arrest the murderer of police officers.   

Balochistan kept on wearing an impatient calm when there was a wave of death and destruction in tribal areas and targeted suicide bombing across the country from 2001 till 2013. When military operation Zarb Azab claimed peace in most of the parts of the country, Balochistan erupted with sectarian and terrorism. There have been attacks on workers of the CPEC projects, shrines, religious congregation, political leadership and the common man.

It seems Balochistan is under attack from dissidents and terrorists. The government needs to take up a two-pronged strategy to deal with the violence in Balochistan – talks with Baloch leaders and action against Taliban and religious extremists.

Baloch nationalist leaders and workers have been pushed to the wall by the state for their political demands. The demands included provincial autonomy and less and less interference in the federal government. The government, however, answered their demands with the assassination of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in an army operation. Several Baloch leaders were hounded, harassed and killed. Now, several Balochs have been under exile, waging their struggle against the government and the establishment. The government has, several times, extended them offers for talks, but in vain. They will (or should) come to the dialogue table as the confrontation or guerilla warfare will not land them victory against an organized, disciplined Pakistan Army,    

On the other hand, the religious fanatics waging a war of terrorism on Balochistan shrines and sects deserve no leniency from the state. Inspired by the Islamic State, Taliban and Al Qaeda, these outfits do not believe in democracy, peaceful co-existence. The merchants of deaths have been working for a long time and have claimed several lives in suicide-cum-target attacks.

Of the two fronts, the government needs to talk to the people on a fast track, so that the government fully concentrate on eradicating terrorists.

Over to the government.