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91 Per Cent Of Gwadar Port Income Will Go To China: Pakistan Shipping Minister To Senate
Gwadar Port (SM Rafiq Photography/Getty Images)
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Mir Hasil Bizenjo on Friday (24 November) informed the Senate that 91 per cent of the Gwadar Port’s income would go to China while the Gwadar Port Authority would get 9 per cent of the income for the next 40 years, reports Dawn. The revelation came after several senators expressed concern that the agreement was heavily titled in favour of China. The port is being built on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis with a concession period of 40 years.
Two committees have been set up by Pakistan to oversee the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The opposition pointed out that neither committee’s chairmen were from Balochistan and thus the agreement highly favoured China. Another Senator stated that the business community should be privy to such agreements and not to bureaucrats who he claimed were not business-savvy.
A Senator from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) however defended the agreement, saying that it would alleviate the country’s blooming power crisis and that the CPEC would witness heavy investment in Sindh and Balochistan thereby generating a lot of employment.
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