An article dealing with the challenges and apprehensions regarding CPEC.

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2. GHINA PAKISTAN EGONOMIG
GORRTDOR (GPEG)
At the moment CPEC is one of
the most significant topics under
discussion. It ranges from the
drawing rooms to the floors of
the National and the Provincial
assemblies. Though the CPEC
is rightly a game changer in the
region and especially, for Pakistan
but it has also evoked a lot of
positivity mixed with anxiety,
unfounded fears, and some
rightly-placed apprehensions. As soon as CPEC was
announced, there was a visible lobby which lost no
opportunity to finding fault with the CpEC, the way
it is planned or in the manner it is executed as well as
how it moves forward. While we will try to discuss
some reservations about CPEC, we will also try to
steer our discussion in areas, which are often not yet
touched upon in the popular discourse. CPEC has been
maligned on various bases ranging from Punjab being
the favored beneficiary, to the fears of the Baloch losing
their own homeland and becoming a minority. However,
if you look at Chinese history for the last thousands
of years, China has never engaged with occupational
wars, it does not bear any favoritism towards taking
over and subjugating other people. The way CPEC Is
planned, it is a large infrastructural project having no
parallel in the history of Pakistan. It is planned as a
network of roads and rail bridges and tunnels and then
adding together industrial zones and power generation
being the most dominant element of the grand project.
Now in the area of power generation we all know that
in the early harvest projects, we are looking at almost
10,000 MW of energy ultimately getting to our grids.
Already work on grid projects is underway that means
the bottleneck created by our old and poorly maintained
grid would be solved. New grid lines are being planned
and at least a few of the maior ones have started comins
on ground.
Another fear is that the cheap Chinese goods are
going to elbow out the Pakistani products. I think this
is an unfounded fear because what we are seeing in
the core projects of CPEC, they do not relate to any
cheap product. First of all we are looking at the power
plants. The Pakistani manufacturers and the Pakistani
industrial sector have nothing to offer in competition
where we can produce the power machinery the turbine
generators or the power plants. While we are looking at
the roads and the railways most of the raw material in
the form of cement and steel will come from the local
area economy and once it comes to the construction
of these mega projects I believe there is still a division
over the underlying sub-contracting between the
Chinese and the Pakistani businessmen. However,
what we must look at is that, at the moment at many
levels Pakistani businesses do not possess the adequate
experience and knowledge in high- level engineering
and technology. They will be best served by their
interaction with the ongoing and the future projects and
working in those areas where they have a competitive
advantage and yet being exposed to those areas which
are traditionally new to us and thus creating new
expertise and understanding. The real trade between
China and Pakistan will start and as the numbers go
we are looking at hundreds of thousands of containers
moving over these arteries. Obviously this will give
rise to enormous economic activity ranging from the
logistics businesses to the services and supplies en-
route for the trade convoys going down to Gwadar and
I believe that the people living in the far flung areas
of the Baluchistan, KP and GB will see unprecedented
economic growth which they have never seen before.
With the better network of railways and roads they
will be connected to the outside world, information
knowledge and money will flow-in, opportunities will
grow so shall the economy.
With the availability ofpower and increase in the power
generation we are sure that the economic activity will
grow There will be remarkable increase in the GDP and
the peripheral economic activity will also be stimulated
by the availability of the power. There will be a certain
cost to it. First of all you must allay the fears about the
CPEC being loaded on the weak economic backbone
of Pakistan in the form of the costly debt. First of
all not all the part of the CPEC is debt, and second,
if there is a debt associated with the project that can
produce returns in excess ofthe interest burden ofthe
debt then such a debt can only enhance the economic
activity and will not harm the economy in general.
Although it is very easy to criticize the CPEC and the
Chinese investment marking it as purely debt but if you
look back a few years even from my own experience
of developing a Wind Power Project, Pakistani
projects were struggling to find any financing in the
international market. Hence, even the availability of the
foreign debt by virtue of CPEC is a positive thing for
our economy. However, generally the kind of fear that
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3. -il
is evoked by the perception of the foreign debt actually
relates to the debt which is not used for any productive
set-up of projects or economically viable project. If a
foreign debt is used only to pay off for the largesse or
the corruption of the ruling elite then obviously that
debt is atrap that would lead any economy to ruin. But
in case of CPEC projects, the investments which are
coming in the form of debt, will ultimately result in
the construction of power plants or the erection of the
major grid lines or the network of motorways, rails and
roads along with the industrial estates, allied industries
and the dry ports, which will have a positive impact on
our economy.
What we have yet failed to understand is that CPEC
requires something more, not only that this is an
economic activity creating enormous economic
opportunities for the people but also there will be an
uu"tt t. of the cultural exchange and enhance friendly
ties, with not only China but with all the regional players
in Central Asia and South Asia. I believe the real long
term effect of the CPEC would be the integration of
this region in a friendlier economic zone lowering of
the restrictions on the movement of trade, goods, and
people. It is likely to enhancethe cultural exchanges
between us, the Central Asian states, China and rest
of the South Asia. What we need to look forward to
is how we can enhance the technical knowledge and
the productivity of our people, how to get ready for
the incoming competitions, how to benefit from the
enormous opportunities that are going to open in front
of us, how not to get carried away by our fears rather
to look towards our future with hope and promise. We
must also start thinking on the lines that we have to put
down the gauntlet and reduce the negativity towards
the regional players, though this has to be reciprocated
from all sides but nonetheless we have to change the
narrative on our side also. We have to bring forth a
narrative of peace, a narrative of mutual co-existence
and respect for all the players in the region. We have
to cultivate and encourage any opportunity to improve
ties with India and we must look towards China to help
us in settling our dispute over Kashmir and water' We
must look towards Afghanistan to help Afghanistan
gain stability which in turn would stabilize our tribal
areas and foremost we have to equip our young
generation with the modern knowledge and tools to be
ibt. to take part in economic activity that is now being
unleashed from the heights of Himalayas down to the
shores of Gwadar.
2017
ALLAH'S SIGNATURE
Allah (,i,1) is the Name ofthe Creator
of the universe and everYthing
in it. The Most Beneficent and
Merciful, Inventor of everYthing,
Exalted Powerful, The Just,
Most Forgiving, Dignified, All-
knowing, Wise, Hears all, Sees all,
Magnanimous,. Like whom there
is none
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Human beings express their feelings of love, gratitude
and awe in many ways; by building places of worship
for Him, Mosques, Churches and Mandirs. Artists have
tried to depict His Sacred names in colourful ways'
Calligraphists try their best to write His Sacred Name
in various beautiful waYS.
In Arabic language the word Allah consist of 3 letters'
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They have written His Sacred Name by using
these three letters in unexhausted number of ways,
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