ISLAMABAD – The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved a compensation package worth around $11.6mn for the affected Chinese nationals of the Dasu Hydropower Project attack.
Reports in local media suggest that the meeting virtually presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin okayed a summary moved by the Ministry of Water Resources for a compensation package for Chinese nationals.
The proposal of payment was approved as a goodwill gesture on the state level in light of Islamabad’s deep relationship with Beijing.
The Dasu hydropower project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion project aimed at connecting China's northwestern Xinjiang province to the port of Gwadar in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Thursday said the Dasu hydropower project has resumed. He also dismissed the media reports claiming the Chinese contractor demobilised from the Dasu dam project site.
Earlier, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi revealed that the Dasu bus attack that killed 13 people, including Chinese nationals, was planned by Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies. A passenger coach carrying Chinese workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had come under attack in July last year.
China had asked Islamabad to probe all angles of the incident, and arrest the perpetrators to protect the Chinese personnel and projects.