Current Projects

Benefits of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the trade gateway for China to the deep sea of Pakistan, which will be very beneficial for the economies of both the countries, after its construction. Pakistan and China are not only the atomic powers of the world, but also they have good economic relations. China has invested in many projects in Pakistan, for the development of Pakistan. China always wants a strong and developed Pakistan. For making this friendship relation more strong, the Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming to Pakistan in the month of April, 2015. During his tour to Pakistan, many mega-projects will be signed between the governments of both sides, in which one of the most important and valued project is the project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the project of highways, railways and pipelines for the transportation of oil, gas and to continue many other trades. This corridor will prove itself as the economic gateway for China to the Middle East and Africa. Kashgar,China will be the starting point of the highway and its destination will be Gwadar,Pakistan. The route of this highway will pass through all the provinces of Pakistan, including AJK and Gilgit Baltistan. The total length of the highway is being estimated up to 3,000km and cost of $45 billion is the initial estimated cost of this mega-project. This project is expected to be completed up to 2030. The finance for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will be provided by both the countries, instead of taking financial from the international banks. Hence, the financial from the banks can be taken, according to the need of time. The concept of this project was given by the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Later on, this project was appreciated and supported by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Asif Ali Zardari (former Pakistani President) and the PM of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif. This project is strategically very important and beneficial for the economies of both...

China’s Xi heads to Islamabad to unveil $46 billion investment

Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Islamabad Monday for a rare visit to unveil a $46 billion investment plan that Pakistan hopes will end its chronic energy crisis and "transform" the country into a regional economic hub. With the plan, known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing hopes to ramp up investments in Pakistan as part of its ambitions to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia, while countering US and Indian influence. Pakistan, a Muslim majority country of 200 million that has been battling an Islamist insurgency for over a decade, hope the investments will spur its long-underperforming economy, which the IMF projects is set to grow 4.3 percent this year. The two allies have enjoyed close diplomatic and military relations for decades, though economic ties have only grown more recently. Bilateral trade crossed $12 billion dollars last year, compared to only $2 billion a decade earlier. "The real opportunity of this China Pakistan Economic Corridor is that it changes the scope of the relationship from geopolitics to geoeconomics," Ahsan Iqbal, the minister overseeing the projects, told AFP. The two countries are set to cooperate in natural gas, coal, and solar energy projects that will provide 16,400 megawatts of electricity -- roughly equivalent to the country's entire current capacity, said Iqbal. Pakistan has wrestled with chronic power shortages in recent years that have scrubbed several points off GDP growth and inflicted misery on the everyday lives of its citizens. "These are very substantial and tangible projects which will have a significant transformative effect on Pakistan's economy," Iqbal said. The project also foresees the creation of road, rail and pipeline links that will cut several thousand kilometres off the route to transport oil from the Middle East to China, while bypassing mutual rival India. The upgrade stretches 3,000 kilometres from the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabia Sea...

China's Xi heads to Islamabad to unveil $46 billion investment

Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Islamabad Monday for a rare visit to unveil a $46 billion investment plan that Pakistan hopes will end its chronic energy crisis and "transform" the country into a regional economic hub. With the plan, known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing hopes to ramp up investments in Pakistan as part of its ambitions to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia, while countering US and Indian influence. Pakistan, a Muslim majority country of 200 million that has been battling an Islamist insurgency for over a decade, hope the investments will spur its long-underperforming economy, which the IMF projects is set to grow 4.3 percent this year. The two allies have enjoyed close diplomatic and military relations for decades, though economic ties have only grown more recently. Bilateral trade crossed $12 billion dollars last year, compared to only $2 billion a decade earlier. "The real opportunity of this China Pakistan Economic Corridor is that it changes the scope of the relationship from geopolitics to geoeconomics," Ahsan Iqbal, the minister overseeing the projects, told AFP. The two countries are set to cooperate in natural gas, coal, and solar energy projects that will provide 16,400 megawatts of electricity -- roughly equivalent to the country's entire current capacity, said Iqbal. Pakistan has wrestled with chronic power shortages in recent years that have scrubbed several points off GDP growth and inflicted misery on the everyday lives of its citizens. "These are very substantial and tangible projects which will have a significant transformative effect on Pakistan's economy," Iqbal said. The project also foresees the creation of road, rail and pipeline links that will cut several thousand kilometres off the route to transport oil from the Middle East to China, while bypassing mutual rival India. The upgrade stretches 3,000 kilometres from the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabia Sea...

China's Xi heads to Islamabad to unveil $46 billion investment

Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Islamabad Monday for a rare visit to unveil a $46 billion investment plan that Pakistan hopes will end its chronic energy crisis and "transform" the country into a regional economic hub. With the plan, known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing hopes to ramp up investments in Pakistan as part of its ambitions to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia, while countering US and Indian influence. Pakistan, a Muslim majority country of 200 million that has been battling an Islamist insurgency for over a decade, hope the investments will spur its long-underperforming economy, which the IMF projects is set to grow 4.3 percent this year. The two allies have enjoyed close diplomatic and military relations for decades, though economic ties have only grown more recently. Bilateral trade crossed $12 billion dollars last year, compared to only $2 billion a decade earlier. "The real opportunity of this China Pakistan Economic Corridor is that it changes the scope of the relationship from geopolitics to geoeconomics," Ahsan Iqbal, the minister overseeing the projects, told AFP. The two countries are set to cooperate in natural gas, coal, and solar energy projects that will provide 16,400 megawatts of electricity -- roughly equivalent to the country's entire current capacity, said Iqbal. Pakistan has wrestled with chronic power shortages in recent years that have scrubbed several points off GDP growth and inflicted misery on the everyday lives of its citizens. "These are very substantial and tangible projects which will have a significant transformative effect on Pakistan's economy," Iqbal said. The project also foresees the creation of road, rail and pipeline links that will cut several thousand kilometres off the route to transport oil from the Middle East to China, while bypassing mutual rival India. The upgrade stretches 3,000 kilometres from the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabia Sea...

Who benefits from the CPEC?

A project of the scale of the CPEC perhaps comes once in the lifetime of nations, hence it is imperative to delve deeper into its advantages. There is a lot of bickering going on amongst Pakistani politicians from various provinces regarding the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Some claim that it is going to benefit only the ruling party, others allege that only Punjab will gain from it while the other provinces will be left in the lurch. Others find fault with the route and surmise that it has been deliberately altered to promote the interests of Punjab. A few relegate the importance of the CPEC, considering it to be just a freeway. The fault perhaps lies in the way that the ruling was issued in Islamabad, without explaining the importance and magnitude of the project or elucidating the advantages that Pakistan will accrue from this all encompassing plan. Normally, politicians love to crow on about even minor achievements from the rooftops. A project on the scale of the CPEC perhaps comes once in the lifetime of nations, hence it is imperative to delve deeper into its advantages. For a country like Pakistan, which faces enormous challenges in terms of both law and order and a dwindling economy, the CPEC offers a panacea to most of its problems and will uplift the quality of life of its citizens. The project embraces the construction of a cross-border optical fibre cable system between China and Pakistan, textile garment industrial park projects, numerous ventures in the energy sector yielding power from various sources comprising hydel, coal, wind power, solar and nuclear. It also entails the development of coal mining projects, the construction of dams, the installation of nuclear reactors and creating networks of roads, railway lines and oil/gas pipelines. Agreements have been made to construct a new international airport, Eastbay expressway, fully equipped hospital, a technical and vocational training institute, water supply and distribution,...

Equal citizens

Faith-based discrimination is an obstacle to social cohesion. During the recent debate on the Yemen situation in parliament, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan made a rare observation followed by a recommendation – stop using the word “minorities” for non-Muslim Pakistanis, and start treating everybody living in this country as equal citizens. Never before has a politician shown such courage to talk about an issue that continuously draws both scorn and sympathy from abroad – non-Muslims living in Pakistan. It is an issue that some of us have been agitating about for quite some time, but hardly any politicians would take it up. It would have been wonderful if Aitzaz Ahsan had gone a step further and mentioned Article 25 of Chapter 1 of the Constitution, which relates to “equal citizenry.” It clearly mentions that every citizen of Pakistan will have equal rights. But then, Article 41 and Article 91 flout this fundamental right by specifically mentioning that the President and the Prime Minister will be Muslim. “A person shall not be qualified for election as President unless he is a Muslim of not less than forty-five years of age and is qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly,” says Article 41(2). “After the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, the National Assembly shall, to the exclusion of any other business, proceed to elect without debate one of its Muslim members to be the Prime Minister,” says Article 91(3). The architects of the constitution probably overlooked the inherent contradiction in these clauses, and the sociopolitical hazards that come with them. How can the constitution guarantee equal rights to its citizens when its own subsequent articles reserve the top two offices of the state for Muslims? Similarly, the misuse of blasphemy laws has also put Pakistan in a bad spot. Blasphemy laws were part of the Pakistan Penal Code (1860), inherited from the British Raj. The original purpose of sections 295, 296, and 298 was to prevent...

Politicians against discrimination

During the recent joint parliamentary debate on the Yemen situation,Senator Aitzaz Ahsan made a rare observation followed by a recommendation: stop using the word ‘minorities’ for non-Muslim Pakistanis. Bury this word and start treating everybody living here as an equal citizen. Never before did a politician gather courage to so boldly articulate an issue that continuously draws both scorn and sympathy from abroad, i.e., non-Muslims living in Pakistan. It is an issue that some of us have been agitating against quite some time but hardly any politician had taken up. It would have been wonderful had Aitzaz Ahsan gone a step further and mentioned the Constitution’s Article 25 of Chapter 1 which relates to “equal citizenry”. It clearly mentions that every citizen will have equal rights. But then, Articles 41 and 91 flout this fundamental right by specifically mentioning that the president will be a Muslim. “A person shall not be qualified for election as president unless he is a Muslim of not less than 45 years of age and is qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly,” says Article 41(2). Our Constitution-framers probably overlooked the inherent contradiction as well as the socio-political hazards when inserting these clauses into the 1973 Constitution. How can the Constitution guarantee equal rights to its citizens when its own subsequent articles restrict and reserve the top two offices of the state only for Muslims? This has led to an automatic exclusion of non-Muslims from top political offices. The broad daylight murders of Salmaan Taseer, the PPP’s federal minister for minorities, Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s advocate Rashid Rehman remain a stigma for Pakistan, where both lack certainty of punishment and fear of reprisal by radicals have encouraged mob justice (Gojra, Rimsha Masih, Shanti Nagar cases, for example). Now that the government and the military establishment seem to have realised the dangers...

Pakistan’s anti-corruption drive

In a functional democracy, governance is the main yardstick of the state’s performance for the delivery to its citizens. Governance is driven by the processes of accountability, and transparency. In most under-developed countries, the mechanisms for accountability and transparency are often compromised with a lack of the political will of the ruling establishment; political, executive, civil, as well as military elite. A major hurdle and hindrance in growth of good governance, is the rampant corruption prevailing in Pakistan. It is widely believed that the menace is spread across the public and private institutions at every level, from bottom to top. Unfortunately, those invested with authority to stop its spread are frequently found to be involved in it too, particularly the law enforcement agencies, civil – military bureaucracy, judiciary and the legislative organs of the state. Another widely prevailing perception is that where there are mechanisms to take on the fight against corruption, often only the lower level officials are convicted; meanwhile, politicians and senior bureaucrats involved in mega corruption scandals escape the grip of law. This results in poverty, unemployment, bad governance, and slow foreign investment in the country. According to the Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Pakistan ranked at 126th position out of a total of 175 countries. The TI further described Pakistan’s CPI score at 29 out of 100. This is the lowest ever, and the country has never achieved this distinction since the first CPI, issued in 1995. Pakistan had secured the score of 28 and was ranked 127th among 177 countries in 2013.[1]The National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), a project of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) estimates $3.3 billion worth of corruption per year in Pakistan, while a former chairman of NAB estimated corruption to be $ 15 billion per year i.e. Pakistani Rupees 5 to 7 billion per day. Furthermore, the finance...

10 Lessons from Fukushima Reducing risks and protecting communities from nuclear disasters

Note: As a commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and to underscore the hazards of the lethal nuclear technology to the human beings and the ecology, CRSS is herewith reproducing the booklet 10 Lessons from Fukushima Reducing risks and protecting communities from nuclear disasters, put together by the Fukushima Booklet Publication Committee led by Professor Masaaki Ohashi. He is currently Chairperson, Japan NGO Center for International Japan. He also heads the CSO Coalition for 2015 which was established to prepare for the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) scheduled to be held in Sendai in 2015. This book is also available at its original source: http://fukushimalessons.jp/en-booklet.html

A New Turn for Pakistan’s Fight Against Militancy

How the March 11 raid on the MQM's Karachi headquarters changed Pakistan. On March 11, Rangers, a paramilitary unit charged with helping curtail the violence in Karachi, raided the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which, along with its competing political party the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has dominated the city since the 1970s. The early-morning raid resulted in the capture of a large cache of weapons, the arrest of 32 suspects including absconding, convicted criminals, and resulted in several injuries and one MQM party worker’s death, though the cause of death remains unclear. Following the raid, business and commercial centers shut down, schools closed and even postponed exams, and Karachi, as well as several other cities in Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, came to a standstill. The only other raid against the MQM was conducted in 1992, and it forever changed the political and administrative landscape of the city. The March 11 raid may trigger a new round of changes in Karachi’s already tense landscape, leaving the city in a heightened state of dread. Karachi was already a city full of tension prior to the raid. It is Pakistan’s most violent city, with an estimated 2,029 violence related deaths in 2014. A significant number of casualties result from rampant crime in the city, but the biggest contributor is the menace of targeted killings, motivated by political, religious, and ethnic reasons, a cycle of unabated brutality that finds roots in the 1992 raid as well. In addition to this protracted problem, militant wings, allegedly of political parties, are also involved in extortion, kidnapping for ransom, and various other illegal activities, sometimes resulting in citywide gunfights lasting for weeks. The Supreme Court, in a controversial verdict on Oct. 6, 2011, alleged that hardened criminals in Karachi enjoy political patronage from major parties. Allegations of political militant wings have surfaced time and again,...