COMMENTS
Consistent efforts have been made over the past many years to create a wedge between the two iron friends but as before Pakistan-China unique relationship has emerged unscathed in the backdrop of the latest terrorist attack in Bisham targeting Chinese engineers working on the vital Dassu hydro-electric project. The feelings and sentiments of people of Pakistan over the dastardly attack were represented by the local people who flocked to the scene of the tragedy instantly to lenda helping hand to the law-enforcing agencies busy in rescue activities, saving potential harm to other precious lives. And Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is one of the architects of blossoming Sino-Pak friendship, rushed to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad along with a team of his senior cabinet colleagues not just to express solidarity with the Government and people of China over the tragedy but also convey firm resolve of the Government and people of Pakistan to identify and punish the perpetrators of the heinous crime and their backers.
There can be no two opinions that the Chinese nationals and interests in Pakistan are being targeted with a clear objective of undermining bilateral ties, which are scaling new heights with the passage of time, and create hurdles in the way of progress, development and prosperity of people of Pakistan. As China is a reliable source of economic, political, diplomatic and defence strength of Pakistan, conspiracies have always been hatched to weaken their bonds but such efforts for malized and intensified when the two neighbours reached an understanding to launch the epoch-making project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is rightly seen in Pakistan as once in a century opportunity to break shackles of poverty and backwardness, especially in hitherto neglected areas and regions. It is purely an economic initiative aimed at improving Pakistan’s infrastructure to international standard and resolving some of the chronic problems of the country like crippling energy shortages as well as harnessing its agriculture potential to put Pakistan on an accelerated path of progress and development. However, the enemy made no secret of its designs to go to any extent either to scuttle the historic initiative or slow down implementation of the multi-dimensional project. Thanks to the firm determination of the leadership of the two countries that the initiative is proceeding ahead successfully and new areas of cooperation are being added to its framework. It is not a coincidence that the Bisham attack was planned and carried out ahead of the proposed visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to China, where he intends to discuss proposals with the Chinese leadership for accelerating the momentum of progress on different projects and include several others that matter much for socio-economic progress of Pakistan. Understandably, the enemy wanted to shift focus of the visit from development to security concerns for Chinese nationals working on various projects in Pakistan.
It is, however, a source of satisfaction that the leadership of the two countries is fully alive to the conspiracies and motives of the enemies of Sino-Pak friendship. Concerns about security and safety of the manpower working on development projects are legitimate and in the wake of a similar terrorist attack targeting Chinese engineers working on the same project in 2021 the two sides worked out a comprehensive plan to beef up security arrangements. The convoy of the Chinese engineers included three vehicles of dedicated security staff but, of course, not much can be done inthe face of suicidal attacks. There is definitely a need to review and revise the security protocol to minimize the risks and intensify intelligence gathering to forestall such conspiracies and that is what the Government of Pakistan has vowed to do.
Chairing a high-level meeting, which was also attended by Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instructed for a thorough joint investigation to be conducted, utilizing all resources of the state. The participants of the meeting expressed their resolute commitment to completely rooting out terrorism from the country and reiterated to comprehensively combat terrorism, employing all resources available to the state. Noting the recent surge in terrorist incidents, the COAS remarked that the enemies of Pakistan had once again underestimated the resilience and grit of the state and the people of Pakistan. He conveyed a strong message to terrorists of all sorts that “We shall fight terrorism till every terrorist casting an evil eye on Pakistan, its people and their guests is eliminated; we shall not leave any stone unturned to ensure that every foreign citizen, especially the Chinese nationals contributing to the prosperity of Pakistan, is safe and secure in Pakistan. We shall fight terrorism with all our might, to the very end.”The Chinese nationals and interests are repeatedly being targeted but these have failed to create a dent in the unrelenting resolve of the Chinese leadership and people to continue fostering ties with Pakistan. This resolve was reiterated by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jianwho said that Pakistan and China have the determination and ability to make terrorists pay the price for their actions and any attempt to undermine China-Pakistan cooperation will not succeed. This isa clear message that the two countries would not allow such conspiracies to create misunderstanding between the two trusted friends. Instead, the statement hints at the possibility of the two countries joining hands to root out the menace of terrorism. The spokesman also expressed satisfaction over the response of Pakistan to the tragedy adding that the Pakistani side pledged that it would investigate the attack thoroughly, provide the Chinese side with timely updates on the progress of the investigation and take further, comprehensive measures to improve the security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.
The mature and calculated statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry augurs well for bolstering bilateral ties in different spheres of life in the times to come. Its spokesperson firmly assured that China will continue to support Pakistan’s economic development, social development and improvement of its people’s livelihoods. China will undertake firm cooperation with Pakistan in various fields to bring benefits to the two peoples. This is, in fact, in line with the repeated assurances of the Chinese leadership including President Xi Jinping to continue to extend support to
Pakistan in different spheres of life. As Pakistan is facing an economic crisis, Xi, during his meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in November 2022 pledged to help Pakistan ‘stabilize economy’. It was not a mere slogan as China extended valuable material assistance to the country to avoid an imminent sovereign default. Similarly, back in November 2019, the Chinese President described his relations with Pakistan as a ‘priority of diplomacy’. He has also been advocating that the two countries should keep advancing bilateral ties through high-quality cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. In this backdrop, I firmly hope that the two countries would arrive at a comprehensive understanding to forge their ties in various sectors to the mutual advantage during the proposed visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. I also earnestly hope that the leadership of the two countries would see to it that the conspiracies of the enemy do not lead to suspension of work on development projects. Instead, security arrangements must be upgraded to the satisfaction of the Chinese side so that the work continues unhindered. In fact, fast-paced implementation of ongoing projects and initiation n of new ones would be the befitting response to the designs of the enemy.
