CPEC ceremony at Gwadar: government criticised for ignoring opposition

Opposition political parties on Monday severely criticised Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for not inviting them to the inauguration ceremony of the trade route between Gwadar and Kashgar as part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Talking to Business Recorder, parliamentarians from the opposition political parties expressed anger at the government for not inviting the leadership from mainstream parties or the chief ministers of other provinces in Sunday's ceremony and described it as a deliberate act of omission
The 2 parliamentary committees on CPEC, constituted for monitoring and addressing reservations of political parties were also not invited to the ceremony. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar, while talking to Business Recorder said that it was unfortunate that CPEC, a national project is becoming controversial due to lack of government's seriousness to address reservations of other provinces.
He said that ignoring political parties representing the small provinces in the launching ceremony would result in further increasing their concerns on CPEC projects. "It was unfortunate that the ruling PML-N completely ignored the national leadership especially from the opposition political parties in the launching ceremony which indicates that the government is not serious to take them on board on this important national project", he said.
The government should have invited heads of state of other countries especially from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states to the ceremony, he added.
"It was an opportunity to send a positive message to the regional countries had their leadership been invited to the ceremony and won their support", he said, adding various regional countries have already shown their interest in the connectivity projects under CPEC and missing this opportunity was regrettable.
Senior leader of PTI Dr Arif Alvi also deplored the government policy of ignoring the small provinces, opposition parties and their leadership, he said that the party's provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already shown serious reservations on the handling of the CPEC projects by the federal government.
He endorsed Farhatullah Babar's point of view, saying that the government should have invited heads of state and government of regional countries especially the Central Asian states, besides leadership of the opposition parties.
ANP's senior leader Senator Afrasiab Khattak pointed out that there are currently two parliamentary committees on CPEC but none of them was invited to the ceremony. "This shows how much the PML-N government gives importance to the parliament, this was not a private party or ceremony, but launching of a project of national importance and the government should have invited all the national leadership including the opposition parties as well as the chief ministers of all the 4 provinces", he added.
Khattak said that on the one hand, the government claims that it is a national project for the whole country while on the other hand no national level leadership was invited to the ceremony. "We believe that there is neither transparency in CPEC nor inclusion of all the regions of the country in CPEC projects", he maintained.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Rashid Mahmood, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Zakaullah Khan, leaders from the coalition partners like JUI-F chief Mualana Fazlur Rehman, National Party leader Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Mohammad Khan Achakzai (Governor Balochistan), from Pashtunkhwa Milly Awami Party (PKMAP) and PML-N's Chief Minister Balochistan Sardar Sanaullah Khan Zehri.
From diplomatic community, the sources said apart from the Chinese Ambassador, ambassadors from friendly countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE attended the ceremony while none of the western countries diplomats including from the US and UK were invited to the ceremony.