Authority formed by the Government to Expedite CPEC Projects

This meeting was attended by Shah Mehmood Qureshi; the Foreign Minister, General Qamar Javed Bajwa; the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Firdous Ashiq Awan; the Special Assistant on Information, Jam Kamal Khan; Chief Minister of Baluchistan, Mahmood Khan; the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, commerce advisers along with the commander southern command and others.

All the participants of the meeting reviewed the progress of various ongoing developmental projects that includes Gwadar master plan along with the establishment of the CPEC Authority. Several other matters related to KP-FATA merger and its development were also discussed in this meeting.

Council members for Baluchistan gave a briefing that the province has always been kept unprivileged due to the negligence of the previous governments. Due to this, the province is facing the wastage of 45% developmental budget with poor security and misuse of resources.

In the meeting, it has been decided to expedite the developmental work in various projects that initiated in Baluchistan province, along with effective steps are to be taken to reduce the backwardness of the province along with increment in the budgetary allocations for the next nine years.

Further, it is decided to swiftly complete the M-8 Motorway project, Basima-Khuzdar Road, 124-kilometre Awaran-Bela Road, and 819-kilometre-long Chaman-Quetta-Karachi motorway. The council has also approved for the development of a port at Gaddani and establishment of a special economic zone at Hub.

Approval for tourist resorts along with the coastal areas such as Gwadar, Ormara, Jiwani, Pasni, Hingol Park, Makola, Kund Malir, and Miani Hor is provided to National Coastal Development Authority. It is apprised to the NDC that Baluchistan will be now divided into four zones i.e. Coastal Zone, Quetta-Duki Zone, Chagai Zone, and Khuzdar-Lasbella Zone.