By Samuel Baid
In an interview with the Director of the advisory committee of the Chinese Institute at Fundan University, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said “I do not understand why there is suspicion about the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) and the Gwadar port. It makes no sense because as far as Pakistan is concerned, my number one priority is the country’s 220 million people”.
Imran’s statement is very naive and if this naivety is genuine he is not fit for the post he is holding. Even a child can tell him what are the West’s fears and India’s objections to the CPEC and the Gwadar Port. But perhaps he had to re-assure his masters “Sir I do not know exactly what the CPEC is all about”. Chinese never meant to share their real intentions behind this project. Uninformed Pakistani rulers were only supposed to parrot that this project was a game changer and it would change their life style. Anything said or written against the CPEC project was considered treason against Pakistan to please India.
This project has existed in Pakistan for several years. In these many years, the country’s economy has fast gone into the reverse gear. Pakistan’s former Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue Shabbar Zaidi said in a TV interview last year that Pakistan was not a “going concern”. He said “we keep saying that everything is good”, the country is running well, we have achieved great success and we brought tabdeeli (change) but this is wrong. In my view, the country is, at the moment, bankrupt and not a going concern”.
In these seven years, Pakistan finds itself in a debt-trap. The fatal burden of debt liabilities increased to 100.3 percent of the GDP by June 2021, unemployment has increased by lakhs. Lakhs and lakhs of people go to bed without food because the inflation is so high that they cannot buy food items and also send their children to school.
If Imran Khan’s number one priority is the country’s 220 million people, let him for the sake of these people hold a referendum in the country, including occupied Gilgit-Baltistan, on CPEC and see what the people have to say about it.
Now people are gathering courage to speak against the CPEC. During the recent Gwadar agitations, CPEC was the main target of attack. The Baluchistan branch of Jamaat-i-Islami, which very effectively organised these agitations, without mentioning the CPEC, criticised its adverse impact on fishermen and other dwellers of Gwadar.
A leader of the Baloch National Movement said the CPEC was an exploitative project to gradually evict the local people of Gwadar and settle Punjabis and Chinese there.
It is a fact that after finishing the first phase of the CPEC project about three years ago with great enthusiasm; the Chinese began to drag their feet when it was time to start the second phase. Sindh newspaper Sindh Express carried an article which said the progress became sluggish when Imran Khan became Prime Minister. Truly, before his election, Imran Khan had expressed reservations about the CPEC plan. But later he realised without China’s money he could not run the government. But change in Imran could not solve China’s problems. China’s main problem remains security, especially in Baluchistan. The recent Gwadar agitations and country-wide support to them made China realise that Pakistan was a dangerous country to start a project like. Another problem China faces in Pakistan is that of corruption and incompetence because of language. Also, Chinese, being communists, are made to work in a regimented manner. Pakistanis are not used to work the way the way Chinese do.
Corruption is a common factor. Many Chinese non-government companies are known to have cheated Pakistan. A few years ago, China had expressed the desire that Pakistan Army men should be associated with CPEC. One retired Army man Aseem Bajwa was made Chairman of the CPEC. The person also had to resign amid allegations of corruption.
Pak-China all weather friendship depends solely on their mutual hostility towards India. China is taking advantage of it by grabbing Pakistani land. But Pakistan, except borrowing money from it, cannot exploit it (China) being a closed society and therefore a puzzle.