ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Thursday lodged a formal protest with World Bank representatives over the map it has used about the country without showing the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan raised the issue of the map sans GB during a ceremony organised by WB in connection with “The Web of Transport Corridors in South Asia.”
When Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal raised the issue, the WB representatives admitted their mistake and assured to rectify it.
Addressing the ceremony, Iqbal, in the presence of Indian ambassador in Pakistan, lamented that both Pakistan and India were entangled in disputes and their future generations would not forgive their respective leadership.
He said both the countries must get out of disputes and move forward positively. Iqbal told the gathering that the CPEC was a project for economic development and regional cooperation. He proposed that resources being wasted on disputes must be utilised for the development of the social sector and South Asia could not progress without resolving their disputes. He said that India must not show narrow-mindedness on the CPEC project.
The interior minister made it clear that the CPEC was not a conspiracy project and India should take it positively. He said that the people of both the countries were facing problems in getting visas. “There is no use of infrastructure if businessmen of both the countries face difficulties in getting visas,” he said adding that nations of South Asia could only progress by collective efforts.
He said that transport transit was very much vital for the progress of the region. He hoped that by 2050, Asia’s share in world GDP would reach 52 percent as it would be the third biggest region in terms of population.
He said that tension and disputes were no solution to the problems being faced by the region rather there was a need to cooperate with each other.
WB Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan said that CPEC was providing Pakistan a great opportunity to progress. He hoped that the project would help promote regional cooperation.