WASHINGTON: Pakistani PM Imran Khan strongly responds over the nonsensecriticism over Pakistan China CPEC.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has rejected the criticism of the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC) as ‘nonsense,” insisting that the project “isreally helping” the country.
In an interview to a US news channel *CNBC*, shown on Wednesday night, MrKhan also urged US President Donald Trump and the United Nations to mediatebetween Pakistan and India over Kashmir.
“When the Chinese came to help us with this Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)and CPEC, we were really at the rock bottom,” said the prime minister whenthe interviewer, Hadley Gamble, asked if the project was a debt-trap forPakistan.
“So, we are really grateful to the Chinese that they came and rescued us,”he added.
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“They came and pumped in, not just they gave us loans – and the loans, bythe way are barely five or six percent of the total portfolio,” said MrKhan, rejecting the suggestion that the CPEC was a debt-trap. “This isnonsense.”
The Chinese, he said, actually helped Pakistan with investment and becauseof them the country now “has an opportunity to attract foreign investment”.
The prime minister explained that his government was now creating specialeconomic zones to attract investment. “We just opened two and we areopening more where we are giving special concessions to industries,” hesaid.
