Security lapses in Pak slow CPEC, cause Chinese ‘Exodus’

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Of 12 China-Pakistan Economic Corridor schemes, including water supply and electricity provision, with $2 billion projects underway in Gwadar, only three projects having a value of over $300 million have been completed.

According to the CPEC Authority, the progress review of the projects revealed that all the schemes having socio-economic benefits for Gwadar – considered as the crown jewel of CPEC – were falling behind their original completion schedules, The Express Tribune newspaper reported May 8.

Alarmed about such delays being attributed to lapses and security concerns, the Shehbaz Sharif Government is fighting to prevent Chinese exodus in the wake of terror attacks, admitting for the first time that security arrangements for the Chinese projects and personnel have been grossly inadequate.

The admission has come from a top ruling party lawmaker who has said that “the Chinese confidence in Pakistan’s security system’s ability to protect their citizens and their projects is seriously shaken.”

Senator Mushahid Hussain, who is also chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, led a Senate delegation to the Chinese embassy last week to express his condolences over the loss of three Chinese lives in a suicide attack
on their van on the Karachi University’s premises last month.

The Karachi University attack was on the three Chinese faculty of the Confucius Centre, China’s cultural arm abroad, though not part of the multi-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The new government has scrambled to assuage Chinese concerns in the wake of the university campus attack amidst reports on the social media that unnerved by security threat, a large number of Chinese have left Pakistan.

The Chinese are equally concerned. While Pakistan side has called reports on the social media as ‘rumours’, the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad has played it down as ‘routine’ transfer of Chinese personnel.

Quoting Hussain, Dawn newspaper (May 8, 2022) said “There may have been no exodus of Chinese workers from Pakistan after the Karachi University attack, but they look less confident about the country’s ability to protect them.”

On May 1, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf also visited the Chinese Embassy to condole the deaths of the terror-hit. He indirectly linked it to the CPEC, saying that elements involved in the suicide attack at KarachiUniversity (KU) were threatened by the idea of Pakistan and China achieving economic prosperity.”

Pakistan is seriously concerned, analysts note, of the Chinese slowing down the investment and effort in the CPEC projects that have emerged as the principal plank for development.

The new government has let it be known that it strives to be both serious and frank about admitting its lapses. This is different from the approach of the Imran Khan Government that obfuscated and sought to shirk responsibility, particularly on security lapses.

For instance, last year’s terror attack that killed nine Chinese workers at Dasu hydel project was first sought to be dismissed as a road accident, till the Chinese protested and sent a team to investigate. Pakistan was forced to admit it as a terror attack and direct its investigations accordingly. Nothing tangible came out of the probe, however.

As part of the structural changes, the new government has decided to wind up the CPEC Authority (CPECA). Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal called for immediate removal of problems faced by the Chinese investors and contractors working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) including swift processing of their visa cases.

He visited the CPECA office asking for an alternative structure so that the CPECA could be wound up. The top decision making body will be integrated into the Ministry of Planning and Development “because it was in conflict with rules of business of the various ministries,” the minister said.

Fighting perceptions and ground realities, the Sharif Government has ordered a probe on the people behind the social media reports alleging Chinese exodus.

Terror attacks – three in last one year targeting the Chinese have shown that Pakistan’s raising an elite Division exclusive for CPEC projects has proved inadequate. Besides the military, the security arrangements include 32,000
personnel of the Rangers, police and other para-military forces.

This poses a huge challenge for Pakistan since the number of Chinese working in Pakistan has grown from 3,000 in 2013 to 60,000 in 2018. As the CPEC extends its work, it is estimated that five million Chinese could be working in Pakistan.

Sharif assured on May 7 that Punjab alone would not prosper because of the CPEC. This seems difficult given the past record — CPEC took off when Sharif was the Punjab Chief Minister and his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif was thecountry’s prime minister. The race for crumbs and loaves that the CPEC throws is likely to foment militancy in the neglected areas and the threat to the security of the Chinese investments and personnel.

This has been a major cause of militancy and even terror attacks and a sore point with local populations from Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north to Sindh and Balochistan in the south, who feel neglected and marginalised, while their resources get transferred to Punjab and big cities.

The terror attacks have been owned up by ‘nationalist’ groups in the north and the south. The one at Karachi University was claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)’s Majeed Brigade. (Islam Khabar)