FO contradicts Interior Minister over suspension of funds for CPEC projects

ISLAMABAD - The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday rejected the reports that Beijing has halted payments on any of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in contradiction with what Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal expressed before a parliamentary committee a few days ago.

During a weekly briefing, FO Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said there was no news from Beijing that the Chinese government was halting funding for any of the projects, clarifying that execution of payments takes place in a specific manner.

Earlier this week, Ahsan Iqbal, who also holds portfolio of Planning and Development, had said that China had halted the release of funds for three CPEC projects till the revision of its 'financial mechanism' by Beijing,

The minister revealed this while giving a briefing to the Parliamentary Committee on CPEC during 25th meeting on Monday which met under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/three-cpec-projects-halted-as-china-revising-financial-mechanism-ahsan-iqbal/

According to a press release issued by National Assembly, Ahsan Iqbal informed the committee that the Chinese side was reviewing the financial mechanism of the projects and they would be started upon receipt of approval from the Chinese side.

It was also reported that China had temporarily stopped funding some projects, particularly those related to the road network under CPEC, till a further decision on ‘new guidelines’ by Beijing.

The reports had claimed that China has stopped releasing funds for the 210-km Dera Ismail Khan-Zhob Road project, 136-km remaining portion of Karakoram Highway (KKH) from Raikot to Thakot and 110-km Khuzdar-Basima Road.

During the meeting, the minister also gave a briefing to the members regarding the Long Term Plan of CPEC which has been agreed to by both Pakistan and China at the last meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) on November 21, 2017.

On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar, who is also a member of the parliamentary committee, had confirmed that he had raised the issue of suspension of Chinese funds at the meeting.

'The members were informed that China was revising the infrastructure projects under its financial review' observed Asad Umar.

Another member of the committee, Al-Haj Gul Khan Afridi, had said they were told that China had not stopped financing the CPEC projects but raised some 'technical objections' to three National Highways Authority (NHA) road projects, Dawn news reported.

What adds confusion to the episode is that a senior NHA official rejected the government claim that work on the three road projects of the authority had been halted on technical grounds.

'It is not true that China raised objections to the projects because these had already been approved at the 6th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting held last year,' he had declared.