Pakistan PM to visit China next week to 'revive' stalled CPEC projects

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be visiting China on October 7-8 to discuss 'revival' of stalled China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, Dawn newspaper reported.

"Removal of all bottlenecks in CPEC projects and their timely completion is the top priority of the government," Imran Khan reiterated while chairing a meeting on the CPEC on Wednesday. He said he would soon visit China and meet its leadership to strengthen friendship between the two countries.

According to the report, it has been learnt that most of CPEC-related projects have been stalled for a while due to certain reasons, including prevailing financial crunch confronting the government and "non-cooperation" of the bureaucracy due to "fear of the National Accountability Bureau".

Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar apprised the meeting about CPEC-related projects and the progress made on them so far.

Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed briefed the meeting on Main Line-1 (ML-1) projects being executed to lay a new railway track from Karachi to Peshawar under the CPEC umbrella.