The report issued from the Gov. of Baluchistan says that the eastern China-Pakistan Economic Corridor route is not realistic or even feasible for the economy of Baluchistan.

Baluchistan provincial government issued a report about the importance of the eastern China-Pakistan Economic Corridor route which is passing through Punjab and Sindh rather than Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan. Even Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan were more suitable provinces for the route to China.

According to report the Federal government is unaccountably increasing the cost of the China-Pakistan economic corridor by the selection of trade route to China from Sindh and Punjab. The report issued by the Government of Baluchistan showed that the route for China-Pakistan economic corridor is a matter of controversy and Islamabad shows the lack of consistency about this matter and it’s a failure.

Bear in mind the needs and desires of all associating units of the country. Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said in reply of the report that the report of Baluchistan Government is one sided and this report did not think about the main investors in CPEC.

Express Tribune stated that this report was prepared by chief minister’s Policy Reform Unit directed by Kaiser Bengali, an economist. This report examines the feasibility of the three routes of CPEC on the base of three factors.

These factors include the density of population, a total area under agriculture along the routes and total yield of four major crops, which do not have any relation to this issue of selecting routes. The report says that these factors were crucial for determining the cost of land purchase and for population displacement, the socio-economic benefits and the ecological impact.

Pakistan has selected three routes for China-Pakistan trade. Firstly the route which is passing from the central Punjab and Sindh is named the eastern alignment, secondly, the route passing through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and some unconnected parts of Punjab and Sindh is named the central route and the third is western alignment, passing through the undeveloped regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.

Baluchistan government revealed that in spite of disapproval, the route has been changed to pass through central Punjab. Furthermore, the federal government is primarily looking towards the eastern corridor.

According to the report coming from the provincial government, the comparison between these routes shows that the eastern route is economically unfeasible.

The government is trading off the existing security hazards by choosing the eastern route with provincial conflicts and political instability in future.

Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal stated that central route passing through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and some unconnected parts of Punjab is the shortest one for cargo to Pakistan ports from China and vice versa. But the eastern alignment from Peshawar-Karachi motorway holds all the major industrial zones and markets of the country. In insistence, he said, CPEC do not believe on the container in, container-out cargo, its objective is to make the country a regional trading hub.