Pakistani daily leaks plan for ChinaPakistan economic corridor

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif travelled to China for the Belt and Road Forum, top on his agenda was finalising the long-term plan for the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Details of this plan, kept secret even from Pakistan’s provincial governments, were leaked by the Dawn newspaper on Monday, causing many quarters to question the wisdom of the initiative.

Thousands of acres of agricultural land will be leased to Chinese enterprises to set up “demonstration projects” in areas such as seed varieties to irrigation technology.

A system of monitoring and surveillance will be built in cities from Peshawar to Karachi, with 24-hour video recording of roads and busy marketplaces for law and order.

A national fibre-optic backbone will be built for Pakistan, for internet traffic as well as for terrestrial distribution of broadcast TV, which will cooperate with Chinese media in the “dissemination of Chinese culture”.

The plan envisages a penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy and society by Chinese enterprises and culture.

Its scope has no precedent in Pakistan’s history, in terms of how far it opens up Pakistan’s economy to participation by foreign enterprises, the Dawn reported.

The plan lays out in detail what China’s intentions and priorities are in Pakistan for the next decade-and-a-half.

Two versions of the plan are with the Pakistani government and the full version, 231-page long, is drawn up by the China Development Bank and the National Development and Reform Commission.