By Senator Rehman Malik
It is evident that USA and India have been propagating against China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from the day one hence, this latest negative statement on CPEC should not be a surprise rather we should expect some more adverse moves from them on this economic corridor. India propagates that this project is against the Indian interests that is why it has been sending numerous operators of its intelligence agency the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to Pakistan to inflect and sabotage this project.
CPEC project has been pinching Washington right from the day one and the most recent statements are looking some of kind preamble of the ill intentions of USA against this future economic lifeline of Pakistan. I have question from USA and India that when Pakistan never questioned USA huge investment in IT parks, Defense industries, Call centers gateways and even a satellite launched in the name of weather forecasting in India, the same satellite which is being used for spying from this region then why they are always putting their nose into Pakistan’s internal affairs.
I hope that USA refrains from criticizing CPEC now which has nothing to do with them as it is our project with China. The arrest and confessional statement of RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadav is a living testimony to their ill motives as he was assigned to sabotage the CPEC through creating instability in Balochistan as well as in Karachi by none but terrorist activities. It was no one else but US President Donald Trump himself who stated against CPEC saying: “One Belt One Road is not acceptable to USA”.
Let me first negate what has been stated by ill-informed spokesperson of USA regarding the loan load because of CPEC. Here is the factual position of loans and investment for the information of American spokesperson to read and withdraw her statement. According to the latest situation there is total amount of $ 19 Billion ($6-billion is Chinese government soft loan and approximately $13 billion FDI) have been spent on twenty-two early harvesting projects. Moreover, the government of Pakistan only have to pay 6 billion USD as a soft loan of the total amount of the project whereas the rest is regarded and declared as foreign direct investment through various Chinese companies. Chinese government soft loan is for the CPEC projects accounted for only 6.3% of Pakistan’s total foreign debt that is approx. $100 billion.
Of all the CPEC projects, only KKH phase-II, Karachi-Lahore motor way (Sukkur-Multan), Orange line and laying of optical fiber cable used the Chinese government soft loan of approx. 6 billion USD which is being named as heavy burden by US. It is unfortunate to see that USA has now begun to see Pakistan with Indian and Afghani eyes. These two eyes are misleading for USA and USA continues to hit Pakistan with different unverified allegations.
The most recent USA country report is basically another highly negative report to be used in FATF against Pakistan where USA has been complainant against Pak in FATF but it should have not written such a biased report at this point of time. It is ethically wrong to start doing the fake propaganda when the matter of both parties is pending & still proceeding in FATF. It is strange to note that Pakistan always stood for USA whereas USA betrays us every time. Mr. USA, We in fact, made a huge blunder to have jumped into Afghan Jihad War against Soviet Union for your sake as Mr. William J. Casey the then director of CIA had a meeting with Gen Zia ul Haq to ask for our help which resulted into strong Pakistani support to USA.
It is wrong on our part that we Pakistanis still have not learnt a lesson from Afghan war sufferings and yet could not resist the pressure of USA post 9/11 where neither our soil was used nor any Pakistani was found in the said terrorist attack. I foresee the ill intentions of USA and India behind their statements as yet another statement has been issued that USA will follow the peace policy of Afghan and Indian Governments.
We must be ready to see more propaganda by USA as it may further plant fake allegations involving some projects of CPEC. It is likely that USA might drag CPEC as well into to FATF and try to invent yet some conspiracy to inflict Pakistan. Following the US statement on CPEC, I hope the Government of Pakistan will take some sensible, pragmatic and evidence based counter measures before the FATF with the help of China to negate the false allegations of USA.
It is highly encouraging to note that China has already warned member states including USA not to politicize FATF and not to use FATF forum against Pakistan. China has clearly advocated that “China does not want the FATF to be politicized by any single country”. This statement has not been liked by the White House resulting into the new statement against CPEC two days back. Let us not ignore this aspect that USA might drag China either in UNSC or FATF with some kind of fabricated charges. The world also knows who is sponsoring the continued trouble in Hong Kong, support of Taiwan against China and numerous intrigues via Tibet. I am sure the solid Sino Pak friend ship will defeat all such USA – Indian attacks against CPEC.