Pakistan Army Will Pay Every Price To Make CPEC Reality: Gen Raheel

By Shahzad Masood Roomi
“We are aware of all the campaigns against CPEC and I vow that the security forces are ready to pay any price to turn this long cherished dream into reality,”

This was stated by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Friday while he visited the HQ of newly raised Special Security Division (SSD) in Pakistan Army which has been given charge of security responsibilities of CPEC projects.

COAS was given a detailed briefing over raising of the force and the security threats faced by the CPEC project. Gen Raheel, after briefing, instructed SSD to take all possible measures to make all CPEC related projects secure including the security of work force involved in the projects.

On arrival, COAS was received by Lieutenant General Malik Zafar Iqbal and Major General Abid Rafique, Commander SSD.

The CPEC is a 3,000-kilometer network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas from Gwadar Port to Kashgar city, northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region which is part of Western China, less developed part of the nation.

Proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his visit to Pakistan in May 2013, the CPEC will act as a bridge for Chinese massive infrastructure initiative known as “One Belt, One Road. CPEC is a crucial component of this initiative which will enable China to expand its regional economic integration efforts through maritime silk route.

CPEC is combination of multiple rail, road and energy projects including upgrading, the highest paved international road in the world, KKH which connects Pakistan and China. CPEC is not only important for Pakistan, but for China too it has strategic value in economic terms as it will reduce Chinese maritime dependence on many of Indian Ocean’s strategic choke points like Strait of Malacca.

The Threats to CPEC:

Since its very inception, CPEC has been a nightmare for India and to a great extent to the US as well. Massive funds have already been allocated by the Indian RAW to turn CPEC into another Kalabagh Dam. According to media reports, some 300 million US dollars have been allocated by the Indian RAW to sabotage the project.

Obvious strategy of the Indian RAW would be to use Baluch insurgents, TTP terrorists and sub nationalist elements within Pakistan’s political circles in order to create confusion among Pakistani provinces on this project.

On the other hand, the US is not happy with such developments in the region. It will create challenges for India who the US eyes as vital partner in long term strategy to counter-weight China. Indian maritime power is considered critical by Washington in order to lock the Chinese dragon in South China Sea. Already, Indian diplomacy has played its role in denting China’s strategy of building multiple dual-purpose sea ports in the region. Bangladesh has walked out of an earlier understanding with China to build such a port in Chittagong.

Internally, Pakistani political elite has also played its role in turning this project into a circus. PMLN government lied about the routes of the projects and the mechanism which was followed to distribute the development projects of CPEC in all four provinces. Pakistan Army is working on multiple road construction projects in Baluchistan, but according to documents available in open domain, there have been no fund allocation for any road on the western route and all the allocation is for Eastern route. PMLN leadership describes it desire of Chinese for security concerns but it remains unclear that why Nawaz government failed to state this important fact to the nation which led to a massive confusion and also left the federal government in an embarrassing position. Furthermore, this confusion created a sheer sense of disharmony among the provinces.

In the backdrops of these internal and external challenges, the statement of COAS must be considered more than a usual statement given on a random event. Establishment of SSD itself is a proof that all above mentioned threats to CPEC are perceived as real.