CEPC

 ISLAMABAD:

The meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee – the strategic brain of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – was abruptly postponed on Thursday, underscoring the challenges that both nations have to face due to changing regional security situation.

The decision to postpone the meeting was taken a day after nine Chinese and five Pakistani nationals were killed in an accident, which Chines authorities have described as a bomb attack but Pakistan initially termed it a vehicle failure. The meeting was scheduled for Friday (today).

China was expected to raise the issue of energising the CPEC, making the CPEC Long-Term Plan 2017-30 effective and issues being faced by Chinese companies working on the CPEC projects, including a delay in clearing their power generation dues.

“The JCC-10 meeting on CPEC which was scheduled to be held on July 16, 2021, has been postponed to a later date after Eid,” Asim Saleem Bajwa, chairman of the CPEC Authority, tweeted.

He said that a fresh date will be shared when finalised but in the meanwhile, preparations continue.

Bajwa on Thursday received a call about the postponement of the meeting during a meeting that Planning Minister Asad Umar was holding with the provinces to sort out issues before the JCC, a senior official told The Express Tribune. He said that the Chinese were not happy with the way Pakistan handled the bus attack issue.

The provision of security to the Chinese nationals and the CPEC assets was also included in the agenda of the 10th JCC meeting. The draft minutes of the JCC suggested that the Chinese were concerned that “changes in regional security situation further the security threats facing CPEC”.

The JCC meeting had been scheduled after a gap of 20 months. The last JCC meeting was held in November of 2019 when Khusro Bakhtiar was the minister for planning.

Planning Minister Umar and China’s National Development and Reforms Commission Vice Chairman Ning Jizhe were set to co-chair the all-important meeting that could have given a serious push to the stalled CPEC.

Pakistani officials have given contradictory statements about the reasons behind the killing of the Chinese nationals.

Read More: CPEC JCC to be held this month: envoy

Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that terrorism could not be ruled out from the Dasu bus tragedy in Kohistan, saying that initial investigations confirmed traces of explosives.

Earlier, Pakistan's foreign ministry said a mechanical failure caused a gas leak which led to the explosion.

On that day, 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, had died when a coach carrying them to an under-construction tunnel site of the 4,300-megawatt Dasu hydropower project fell into a ravine in the Upper Kohistan area after an explosion.

On July 14, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Dushanbe and took up the issue of killing of the Chinese nationals.

Yi said the Chinese side was shocked by the serious Chinese casualties in Pakistan, hoping that the Pakistani side could quickly find out its cause, conduct rescue and treatment work at all costs, deal with the aftermath in time, and prevent similar incidents from happening again.