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| Ali Zafar |
ISLAMABAD: Minister for
Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Barrister Ali
Zafar said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was an example of a
friend who never left and testimony of the tremendous role that China played in
the economic development of Pakistan.
Speaking at a seminar on
“Role of Media and CPEC” organized by Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors
(CPNE), he said China and Pakistan had a time tested friendship and he was
happy to say that both countries had actually gained from that friendship.
He said that the construction
of Karakoram Highway, Heavy Mechanical Complex at Taxila, Pakistan Aeronautical
Complex and Chashma Nuclear Power Plants were monuments of the two countries
ever increasing relationship.
In the backdrop of US-India
deal for transfer of civilian nuclear technology, which Pakistan regarded as
highly discriminatory, no country stood with Pakistan, but China exhibited the
strength of friendship that was required, he said adding China helped built
Chashma nuclear power plants IV and V, he added.
Ali Zafar quoted Paulo Coelho
de Souza, Brazilian lyricist and an eminent literary figure, as describing
“friendship is not about whom you know the longest. It is about who came and
never left” and China was the friend who never left.
He recalled that China was
isolated many years ago, and Pakistan’s PIA was the first foreign non-communist
international airline that flew there.
“If you remember we initiated
the dialogue and made it possible for United States and China to talk when the
world was divided between east and west – the Soviet Union and USA. We took
Henry Kissinger to China. We in fact supported China’s sovereignty over Taiwan,
Hong Kong and Tibet and we have supported China in matters of human rights.”
“At the global level, China
has always supported us on the issue of Kashmir and in the economic and defence
fields, China has been our ally.”
Talking about CPEC, he said a
country first of all needed power, infrastructure and road networks for its
development and then “we can talk about proper industrialization.”
“Right now what the CPEC is
going through is in fact the first phase and a lot of questions have been asked
as to where is industrial growth and from where the industry is going to come.
That answer has to be given.”
He said, “Industrial growth
will come but it will come later. Industrial parks will be set up. However, how
these industrial parks will actually help economic growth, that question is
still to be answered.” “We have to work on it and have to give people our 20 to
25 years plans,” he said adding more seminars and conferences should be held as
more people will know about CPEC, more confidence would grow in that project.
Ali Zafar referred to the
very important 6th meeting of Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) held in
Beijing in 2016, that included in CPEC: Diamer Bhasha Dam, Karachi Peshawar
Railway, Karachi Circular Railway, Keti Bandar and special economic zones.
The chief ministers of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan participated in the JCC
meeting at the invitation of the federal government, he said adding at the end
of the meetings, all the chief ministers expressed their satisfaction over the
steps taken in the JCC meeting.
He said, “Article 19A of the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan says that freedom of information is a fundamental
right.” He said the government should be made responsible for disseminating
information about everything. “When government decides a matter it must inform
the public that these are the reasons for its decisions. If it makes a project,
it has to give the data and facts about it.”
He said it was only when the
information would be disseminated, debated among the public and discussed by
the media, there would be transparency and corruption would be stopped.
He said , “If the system is
transparent you will not enable people to become corrupt. You will stop people
from being corrupt as it will stop corruption in its tracks.”
