Islamabad - Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is economic future of Pakistan and its security shall never be compromised.
He was talking to Ambassador of China to Pakistan Yao Jing, who called on him at GHQ, said a statement issued by ISPR.
It said that matters of mutual interest including regional security issues were discussed during the meeting.
The Chinese Ambassador appreciated conduct of successful visit of Chinese Foreign Minister and across the board support for CPEC in Pakistan.
The development comes a day after a report in the London-based Financial Times newspaper that quoted the prime minister’s commerce adviser Abdul Razak Dawood as saying that CPEC “unfairly benefits Chinese companies” through tax breaks and many other incentives that are unavailable to local counterparts.
He went on to say that the deals under CPEC would be reviewed, adding that “we should put everything on hold for a year so we can get our act together”. Both Pakistan and China reacted angrily to the report.
Hours later, the commerce ministry issued a public rebuttal to the report saying the news item was premised on “out of context” statements.
These words were published on the same day when the Chinese and Pakistani delegates sat down together after a long meeting and agreed to broaden the base of the CPEC arrangement.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has constituted a nine-member committee to evaluate CPEC the most ambitious part of China’s Built and Road Initiative (BRI). The $62 billion CPEC project initiative includes a grand revamp of Gwadar, road rail links and power plants worth US$30 billion.