ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal has warned Planning Minister Asad Umar to avoid giving factually inaccurate statements regarding China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the PTI regime’s mishandling of the project has already created severe problems for the landmark initiative.
In a statement, Ahsan said had Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet not turned CPEC into a controversial project with their uninformed and misplaced criticism it would not have fueled the barrage of international misunderstandings that benefitted those looking to demonise the project.
Ahsan said that the total volume of Chinese loans under the CPEC is not $18 billion but actually $5.8 billion. “The duration of this loan’s return is between 20 to 25 years and its average interest rate is a mere 2 per cent, and all energy projects under the CPEC are investments, not loans,” he said, adding that this is a special concession by China for its brotherly country Pakistan.
