ISLAMABAD: China has stopped funding for three projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the financial mechanism of these projects is under review, confirmed Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal confirmed on Monday, reported a local media outlet.
The minister informed this in an official press release issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, adding that work on these projects would restart after receiving approval from Beijing.
Iqbal could not satisfactorily answer as to why the Chinese government had opted for a new financial mechanism and scrapped the previous one which was agreed upon by both countries.
A member of the committee, Al-Haj Gul Khan Afridi, said that they were told that China had raised ‘technical objections’ to three NHA road projects which will now soon be inspected by a Chinese team.
However, a senior NHA official says that China has not raised any objections to the projects because these had already been approved at the 6th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting held last year.
According to Ahsan Iqbal, the Karachi Circular Railway project had been approved for CPEC, while similar projects for Quetta and Peshawar would be reviewed in accordance with the technical feasibility reports.
