QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani will not attend the 8th meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee to be held in China on Dec 20. He has nominated Information Minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi to represent Balochistan government at the meeting.

Official sources said that the Balochistan chief minister was not part of Pakistan’s delegation which left for China on Monday, led by Federal Minister for Plann­ing and Development Makh­doom Khusro Bakhtiar.

The Balochistan government had announced a few days ago that the chief minister would decide about attending the conference in China in the light of agenda and decisions of the Planning and Development Working Group relating to Balochistan’s development projects in the China-Pak­istan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The chief minister also held a meeting with Chinese ambassador last week in this connection.

The Balochistan government has already expressed its reservations about not including Balochistan deve­lopment projects in CPEC, especially not making the western route part of CEPC.

Mr Alyani had said that only two projects of Balochistan had been made part of CPEC over the past five years.

Upgradation of CPEC deve­lopment projects, Gwa­dar International Airport and special economic zones would be the main projects of Pakistan to be discussed at the JCC meeting.

The Balochistan government has decided to present its demands in the meeting which include inclusion of western route in CPEC, Chinese investment in the province’s livestock and agriculture sectors and building of new dams.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Mi­­ni­s­­­ter Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Reh­man, Balochistan Infor­ma­tion Minister Zahoor Bule­­di, Chairman of Gwadar Port Authority Dostain Ja­­maldini, Secretary of P&D Muhammad Ali Kakar, Chairman of P&D’s CPEC Unit Hafeez Jamali and senior government officials of the Balochistan government will attend the meeting.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018