ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday that a parliamentary committee must resolve the issue of the western route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and provincial governments must refrain from taking it to the courts or discussing it in the media.
Talking to media representatives after signing a memorandum of understanding with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Islamabad, he criticised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government for taking the CPEC western route issue to the courts as unrealistic.
Foreign investment, the minister said, could not be attracted through courts rather such an action would send a negative message to the world.
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He said a project like CPEC should not be used for party politics, which he claimed was mainly a target project for underdeveloped and underprivileged areas of the country.
Iqbal was hopeful that all the differences and issues within the country surrounding the project would be resolved in a democratic way.
Speaker KP Assembly on Monday had submitted a writ petition at the Peshawar High Court (PHC) over the western route of the CPEC.
The speaker Asad Qaisar had named the federal government, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) in the petition questioning whether the western route of the CPEC is part of the project or not.
Qaisar was of the view that neither his party nor his government was against the mega project but insisted all provinces must get shared and equal benefits from it.
