PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal has said that people of Pakistan are custodians of the CPEC as a strategic national project. In a press statement, he said that Pakistan doesn't face any economic difficulty due to the CPEC investment on the contrary the CPEC has greatly helped Pakistan solve energy crisis, untapped valuable resources such as Thar coal, where coal with equal energy value as Saudi Arabia and Iran's oil was sitting underground for 70 years, brought much needed foreign investment, helped build modern transport infrastructure in the country on most favourable terms.

Balance of payment crisis is not an outcome of the CPEC rather it is due to the political drama, which was staged to oust PML-N government that shied away billions of dollars in foreign investment due to political uncertainty while GDP was growing to almost 6 percent.

But, inflow of dollars got stalled due to shying away of billions of dollars in investments thanks to Panama drama. Some vested interests and elements in present government are unnecessarily creating controversies about CPEC. We should refrain from making national projects centre of any controversy. The present government has now found that CPEC projects were done most transparently.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019