Ahsan Iqbal’s directive to abolish CPEC Authority
Islamabad :
Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has called for immediate redressal of the issues faced by Chinese investors and contractors working on the Pak-China Economic Corridor (CPEC), including processing their visa cases.
According to media reports, during his visit to the CPEC Authority offices, the Minister also directed the concerned authorities to prepare a structure so that the CPEC Authority could be disbanded and integrated into the Ministry of Planning and Development as it is different. Contradicts the rules and regulations of the ministries.
Ahsan Iqbal told the media that the CPEC authority is inactive and contradicts the role of the ministries in this regard. Only the work was copied and no one took responsibility for it.
Responding to media reports regarding the handing over of the chairmanship of CPEC Authority to the new PML-Q Federal Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain, the Federal Minister said that he was not aware of any such move and it was illogical to have a parallel setup. ۔
He recalled that the PML-N had vehemently opposed the establishment of the CPEC Authority through an Act of Parliament as it was unnecessary as the Ministry of Planning had in the past been very diligent and effective in this regard.
He said members of the opposition had opposed the act because it was a parallel planning commission with little usefulness and had become a “white elephant”.
Ahsan Iqbal in his dissenting note reminded that the Planning Commission has successfully invested over 29 29 billion without any authority and without the cooperation of various ministries which should continue to be implemented successfully.
Ahsan Iqbal, meanwhile, invited his predecessor Asad Umar for a farewell briefing on the PTI’s development initiatives of public importance and said that these projects should continue, we were not succedded in contacting Asad Umar for taking his comment in this regard.
