THE categorical and bold statement of Khalid Mansoor, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority is yet another indication that like the nuclear programme, CPEC too has become a target of conspiracies by some foreign powers.
Addressing the CPEC Summit at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) on Saturday, he accused the United States of conniving in cahoots with India against the economic lifeline of Pakistan.
It is known to each and every Pakistani that conspiracies are being hatched against the historic initiative from day one but, perhaps, for the first time these have publicly been acknowledged by the most relevant official.
Initially, attempts were made to create internal differences on the project but the spoilers soon realized that there was national consensus, and rightly so, on the initiative and now, apart from covert and overt pressures, disruptive tactics are also being employed to scuttle progress on CPEC projects as we recently witnessed in the case of attacks on Chinese engineers, which led to suspension of work on a vitally important hydro-power project.
The United States and some other countries not only launched venomous propaganda against the nuclear programme of Pakistan but resorted to all kinds of arms-twisting to pressurize the country to roll-back the programme.
And now, the SAPM openly stated that the United States and India continue to “make attempts to manoeuvre Pakistan out of” China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a global infrastructure development plan — under which the Chinese government has been investing heavily in about 70 countries.
He rightly pointed out that some Western countries view CPEC as a symbol of growing political influence of China and, therefore, wanted to undermine it.
However, China has made it clear that it has no political ambitions and the Corridor is part of the greater Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that is based on shared progress and prosperity.
The sincerity of Pakistan and China is also evident from their repeated offers to other countries to join the process.
We welcome assurance of Khalid Mansoor that “there’s no way Pakistan will forgo any of its benefits” and hope practical measures would be taken to expedite work on all on-going projects and kick-start work on all other agreed projects and programmes under CPEC phase two.
