Islamabad, 26 April 2022 (TDI): Deputy Head of Mission of the Chinese Embassy, Pang Chunxue, called on the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar, in Islamabad on Monday.
While speaking to the Chinese Charge d’ Affaires, Khar said that Pakistan was committed to bolstering its all-weather strategic cooperation partnership with China.
The state minister praised China’s unwavering support for Pakistan’s development and progress.
She added that Pakistan wants to accelerate the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Khar welcomed Chinese investment in the CPEC’s special economic zones.
The newly formed coalition government led by the PML-N has decided to disband the CPEC Authority. This decision was taken following reports that Chinese power producers had shut down 1,980 megawatts of production capacity due to non-payment of Rs300 billion in dues.
The Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has directed the competent officials to begin disbanding the authority. He remarked that the ministry would move a summary seeking Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s approval to abolish the CPEC Authority. “It is a redundant organization with a huge waste of resources which has thwarted speedy implementation of the CPEC,” the minister added.
The decision to dissolve the CPEC Authority was consistent with the PML-previous N’s stance of never developing a parallel system. Even though the PTI administration took more than two years to establish the authority, it remained mainly dormant since the previous political regime was opposed to having another bureaucratic organization.
About CPEC:
CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) is a group of infrastructure projects that started in 2013 and are now being built in Pakistan. It aims to quickly update Pakistan’s essential infrastructure and enhance its CPEC projects by creating modern transportation infrastructure, various energy projects, and special economic zones.
CPEC is a regional connectivity structure that will benefit not just China and Pakistan but also Iran, Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republic, and the region
