China’s strict conditions force Pak to withdraw Diamer-Bhasha Dam in CPEC

Islamabad: Pakistan has withdrawn its bid to include the USD 14 billion Diamer-Bhasha Dam in PoK in the CPEC framework after China placed strict conditions, including ownership of the mega project, according to senior officials. Pakistan has been struggling to raise money from international institutions like the World Bank in the face of Indian opposition to the project on the Indus River in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), runs through PoK and India has raised objection to the project. Neither the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) nor China would finance the dam, therefore, the government decided to construct the reservoir from its own resources, the Express Tribune on Wednesday quoted Water Resources Secretary Shumail Khawaja as saying.

Pakistan decided to take the dam project off the table just days before the 7th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting with China, which is scheduled for November 21 in Islamabad, it said. The JCC is the highest decision-making body of the CPEC. “Chinese conditions for financing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam were not doable and against our interests,” Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Muzammil Hussain said yesterday while briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the status of the mega water and power project.

He said the Chinese conditions were about taking ownership of the project, operation and maintenance cost and securitisation of the Diamer-Bhasha project by pledging another operational dam. These conditions were unacceptable, therefore, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi approved a report to finance the dam from the country’s own resources, he said. A flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative, the CPEC is a trade network of highways, railways, pipelines and optical cables which are currently under construction throughout Pakistan.

India skipped the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in May this year due to its sovereignty concerns over the CPEC. The issue of excluding the Diamer-Bhasha Dam from the CPEC framework also featured in the Cabinet Committee on CPEC which met last week, the paper said.

Doklam-like issues: China to act strongly

Beijing: China will handle more “squarely” issues like Doklam and not adopt the past approach of trying to shelve differences, a Chinese expert said on Wednesday. The expert with China’s leading think tank also said that Beijing will not compromise on the issues safeguarding sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests.

“When safeguarding sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests, we will always be assertive and strong because there is no room for compromise on these issues,” said Yuan Peng, Vice President at the China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations.