Return of Afghan refugees: US urged to provide economic package

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal Friday asked the United States to provide an economic package for honorable return of three million Afghan refugees from Pakistan to their homeland instead of indulging in blame games. He said Pakistan cannot be expected to certify who among the three million refugees are peaceful people or involved in cross-border terrorism. He said Pakistan can only guarantee that its soil is not being used for terrorism against any country.
The minister said that around $4 billion investment was made in entire Gwadar for energizing or completing different projects in the first phase including port, basic infrastructure and free zone. Ahsan Iqbal said that some neighbours are hatching conspiracies against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor because they are not happy with new central position Pakistan is going to secure after new developments related to CPEC. He said that India should get rid of its narrow approach as this would benefit the whole region.
He said initially China committed $800 million out of total $46 billion under CPEC for development of Gwadar. For the second phase investment of $3 to $4 billion has been mobilized cumulatively by the federal government, provincial government of Balochistan and the private sector of both China and Pakistan that will translate Gwadar into gateway for CPEC.
Talking on Afghan refugees issue, he said the US withdrew after the Cold War and left Pakistan in a lurch to carry the baggage. But it should now share the responsibility instead of blaming Pakistan for its failures in Afghan war. "The US should now announce economic package for return of three million Afghan refugees to their homeland. Its time for the US to do more in partnership with other stakeholders, otherwise if we remain engaged in blame game, the terrorists will get the benefit," Iqbal said.
In response to a question regarding growing ties among the US, India and Israel, he agreed that new alignments are being made in the world, adding, "We don''t need to be worry as we also have other foreign policy options."
Earlier, speaking about Gwadar development, the minister said that there was no special treatment to China on Gawadar port. The agreement Pakistan had signed with Singapore Port Authority more than a decade ago was transferred to China Overseas Port Holding Company on same terms and conditions, which has actualized the project development. Within a short span of five to six months, the Gwadar Business Center was built having multi-storey building which is the largest facility in Balochistan. He said that Chinese companies are moving quickly for infrastructure development.
Chairman Gwadar Port Authority Dostain Khan Jamaldini said that China has so far invested $2 billion into Gwadar which can have significant improvement in the socioeconomic condition of 216,000 population of Gwadar. This included infrastructure, energy, transport and industrial cooperation, he added. Separately, the local expenditure on Gwadar has increased to Rs 36 billion with significant jump from Rs 3.5 billion in 2013, he further said.
Responding to questions regarding water challenges in Gwadar, Jamaldini said that current water requirement for Gwadar stands at 6 million gallons per day but two water small dams are currently providing around 2.7 million gallons per day. He said that the water requirement will be 12 million gallons per day for which additional arrangements are made to get 10 million gallons of water.
Talking about current workforce employed in Gwadar, he said that around 2,500 workers are working on various projects including 500 Chinese. Regarding future expansion at Gwadar, he said that the free economic zone will be spread over 2,200 acres of land for which five industries granted permissions for installing their units in steel, automobile, marine fish and oil sectors. "We have received another 300 applications for trade and industrial complexes including banks, insurance companies and other industries," he added.
He said that in the first phase of displacement of 300 families for setting up of free zone, two plots each of 500 square yards and one constructed shop were given to compensate their small residences which encouraged them to move out and live a better life.