PESHAWAR - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Tuesday passed a unanimous resolution demanding of the federal government to implement the decisions taken in the All Parties Conference (APC) of May 28, 2015 regarding China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in letter and spirit.
The resolution presented by Sikandar Hayat Sherpao was also carrying the signatures of Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of PML-N, Syed Jaffar Shah (ANP) Mohammad Ali Shah, Saleem Khan (PPP), Zarin Gul, Manawar Khan (JUI-F), provincial ministers Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, Habib-ur-Rehman and special assistant to CM, Abdul Monim Khan.
The resolution said that CPEC is a fortune changer project and all the people of Pakistan fully support it. However, it said change in the original route had made it controversial. The provincial assembly has already passed a resolution in this regard while a number of seminars, conferences, walks and protests have been staged outside the provincial assembly to restore the original route of the corridor.
It said that on May 28, 2015 an All Parties Conference (APC) was held in Islamabad under the chair of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “The APC evolved consensus,” it said, adding the western route will be the route of corridor and will be completed first and named the cities and towns, which came on way of the western route.
Subsequently maps issued and allocations of the federal government budget have created doubts regarding the western route. According to present plans, the western route will remain the same old single road of National Highway. The budget allocations are to connect this route to Gawadar on one hand and Karakurram Highway (KKH) on the other.
The resolution said that any deviation from the decisions of the APC will not be acceptable to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, it will create disharmony among the federating units of Pakistan. In their speeches in support of the resolution, Syed Jaffar Shah of ANP, Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan and Saleem Khan of PPP also expressed concern over the deviation from the agreed route and demanded the implementation of the consensus evolved in the APC in letter and spirit.
However, parliamentary leader of PML-N, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha dispelled all apprehensions regarding change in the route of the project and said that the completion of CPEC will make a new Pakistan. He requested the political leadership not to make the important project controversial.
He rejected the report prepared by a local organisation and reiterated that the prime minister will implement the decisions of the APC in letter and spirit. He said the project will be completed on its original route and not a single inch change will be made in it.
Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha said that after completion of 25 per cent of the international trade will depend on it and several industrial zones will also be established on it at different places. Later, the chair Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli presented the resolution to vote and the house adopted it unanimously.