Army chief General Raheel Sharif vowed on Friday Pakistan and China would defeat the “nefarious designs” of forces detrimental to increased cooperation between the two countries, particularly on the economic corridor, adding that both the countries were facing the same enemy.He said this during a ceremony to celebrate the Chinese Army’s 88th anniversary held at the country’s Islamabad embassy, apparently referring to India, which has publicly voiced its opinion against the recently agreed multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).“I reiterate our resolve that any attempt to obstruct or impede this project will be thwarted at all costs,” reiterated Gen Raheel. “Your [China’s] enemy is our enemy. Eliminating the ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) is a manifestation of this. Our cooperation is for regional stability.”Describing Pak-China friendship as all-weather, sweeter than honey, higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the ocean, he said the strategic cooperation between the two neighbours would further grow in these testing times. “The rest of the world takes this relationship as iconic, and both nations are indeed proud of it.”There have been several attacks on Chinese personnel working in Pakistan in the past, which explains the COAS’s repeated reiterations of the military’s commitment to making sure that the CPEC project goes through unhindered. For CPEC to be successful, or even viable, the Corridor and Gwadar port will have to be made secure, both during their construction and afterwards. There are fears that the continuing nationalist insurgency in Balochistan may threaten the project. If the security threats are not managed, CPEC may suffer and international entrepreneurs will not want to use these insecure trade routes. The COAS’s belief that the military will ensure the security of Gwadar and the Corridor remains to be tested, since the military has not been able to completely quell the nationalist insurgency so far, despite several military operations and the ubiquitous presence of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan. Perhaps the state needs to take a different approach in tackling the long-standing issue of Balochistan and try to reach a political settlement through negotiations, particularly given the CPEC stakes. One of the reasons that the nationalist insurgency is continuing is that the people of Balochistan do not believe that the Centre represents their interests, because of the long-standing neglect of the province’s development and the rights of its people. One of the reasons that China is building CPEC is to promote growth in its largely underdeveloped western regions. Pakistan’s Centre will only be able to assure the Baloch that CPEC will truly benefit them if it addresses their age old grievances and seeks a peaceful solution. A purely military solution may prove elusive, as it has throughout Pakistan’s history since independence.
pk.shafaqna.com
