Pakistan cedes strategic pipeline contract to China to repay `mountain of debt’

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Pakistan has started ceding important projects to Beijing as a way out to repay the mountain of debt arising out of Chinese loans as the Imran Khan government recently awarded the contract for the construction of 3,021 km of the strategic crude oil pipeline from Gwadar port in Pakistan to China’s Xinjiang, to a Chinese company, a media report said.

The principal company for the project is M/s China Zhenhua Import and Export Co Ltd. The company will not only finance the construction of the pipeline but also take away the profit generated from the operation of the pipeline. It is also learnt that the Pakistan government has agreed that all equity in the pipeline will be owned by China and agreed to grant a 20 years tax holiday for profit and income earned by the Chinese company from the crude oil pipeline, reported InsideOver.

Despite Beijing’s claims that the pipeline is for meeting the energy demands of Pakistan, it appears that the communist regime is itself planning to enhance Strategic Petroleum Reserve through the pipeline. It will help Beijing in reducing its crude oil import bills.

Beijing’s security personnel equipped with high precision weapons and equipment (unmanned reconnaissance and strike systems and air defence guidance equipment) will be deployed along the pipeline, as per the report.

Now Pakistan seems to have become weary of being identifying too closely with Beijing. Pakistani authorities were recently reluctant to agree to China’s and Iran’s request for endorsing the Joint Statement on the decision to be adopted in the forthcoming Conference of the States Parties (CSP) on Central Nervous System Acting Chemicals. This pipeline project is aimed to benefit China more in comparison to Pakistan, according to InsideOver. (ANI)