The Government announced on Monday that it would not seek foreign help to rebuild areas destroyed by continuous devastating floods, since Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif constituted a committee to assess damage to crops, shelter and livelihoods. The Minister of Planning, Ahsan IQBAL, announced the government’s decision not to take foreign loans for reconstruction activities, also said that Pakistan could not take a new loan from China for the main line I project due to its inability to pay old loans that are transmitted every year.
"Pakistan will carry out the rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged areas through the use of their own financial resources and without receiving external assistance," Iqbal said, while heading to a press conference. The minister also spoke at the Mountlyly Development Report ceremony, prepared by the Economist Chief Office of the Planning Commission. The report stated that until now almost 9,200 houses have been damaged, 671 kilometers long dragged roads and 239 fallen bridges. Iqbal said that the prime minister was on Monday a committee that would evaluate damage to crops, homes and infrastructure and after that the rehabilitation and reconstruction needs would be evaluated. Ahsan Iqbal will preside over the committee. He said that the real cost of damage can only be known once the water goes back in the next two weeks. His statement occurred days after the Minister of Finance, Muhammad Aurengzeb, said that Pakistan could not prepare invertible projects to use $ 11 billion, promised by foreign lenders during the Geneva Conference almost three years ago. "Let’s accept that we could not find invertible projects to benefit from the billions of promised dollars in Geneva," Aurangzeb had said. However, Iqbal denied that Pakistan could not completely use the promises of the Geneva Conference. "There is not even a dollar that is not compromised, since it is the gestation period of the project that takes longer"Said the Minister of Planning. IQBAL said the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has already approved projects of $ 3.7 billion worth the commitments related to the $ 6.4 billion project. But the Ministry of Economic Affairs informed the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) that of $ 6.4 billion in promises of project financing, only only $ 2.8 billion were disbursed. In general, foreign lenders had promised $ 11 billion, including $ 4.6 billion for oil financing and $ 6.4 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction, but disbursements remained limited due to the absence of credible projects. To a question about the need to have the Kalabagh dam, the planning minister said that no prey could be built without first achieving a national consensus. China Development The minister said that Pakistan and China agreed to hold the 14th meeting of the CPEC Cooperation Committee on September 26. He added that during the meeting or after that both parties sign a financing agreement for the construction of Phase II of Karakoram-Highway. China will grant a loan for the KKH-II equal to 85% of the cost of the project, he added. He confirmed that Chinese financing under the CPEC framework was not available to the ML-I project. "It has also been agreed between Pakistan and China that would explore multilateral financing for the construction of the ML-I project," said the minister. His statement came days after Islamabad asked the Asian Development Bank (BAD) to completely finance the railway project of almost 7 billion main (ML-I) in consortium with other multilateral lenders after not obtaining funds from China.
"It was inappropriate that Pakistan took more loans for the ML-I project, particularly after the exim Bank of China is already moving on old loans every year," The Minister of Planning said, while justifying the Chinese decision not to grant any loan for the only strategically important project of the CPEC. The country waited almost a decade for the financing commitment of 85% of China for the project. The government has now returned to ADB, which was willing to finance in 2016, but retired due to Beijing’s insistence on the only financing. The Manila headquarters, together with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has shown a willingness to provide about 60% of funds for the Karachi-Rohri section, the Express PAkGazette had previously reported. However, Iqbal said that China would extend its support to obtain loans from ADB and AIIB for the ML-I project. He blamed the PTI government for delaying the ML-I project and also stretching the Sukkur-Hyderabad highway project. He said the ADB team was conducting the survey for the construction of the Karachi-Rohri section of the ML-I. The Government has estimated the cost of the section at $ 2 billion and the Rohri-Multan section at $ 1.6 billion, which raises only these two to $ 3.6 billion. However, it is expected that due to the international competitive tender, the total cost will continue to be lower than the projected cost under the bilateral framework. The minister said that China also agreed to consider investments in the mining sector. Both parties also agreed to establish two special economic zones for the relocation of Chinese industries, said the minister shortly after returning from Beijing.
