To maintain grip on occupied Baluchistan, Pakistan invites turkey to join CPEC
Baluchistan, today is an impoverished forcibly occupied country with significant mineral potential, which continues to bear the brunt of the CPEC projects being built on its territory with no expectation of any financial or economic gain for its people. This sense of exclusion has fuelled a mass desire in Baluchistan not only against the CPEC but also to fight for its independence with all its might.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion dollar project was introduced in 2013 and quickly dubbed by China as the flagship extension of the Belt and Road Initiative. Pakistanis had hoped that this new development program will bring change and turn the country into a regional hub.
However, the investment has only had debilitating impact on the South-Asian country, with most of the burnt being faced by the people of Baluchistan which is under forceful occupation of Pakistan since 1953. So the Baluchistan National Army has started fighting the occupation force with renewed vigour.
Now in order to continue its grip on Baluchistan, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has invited Turkey to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) once again.
Prior to this, Sharif had extended an invitation to Turkey to join CPEC in November of last year in order to reduce keep Baluchistan under subjugation.
He had suggested months prior that China, Pakistan, and Turkey form a “trilateral arrangement” around CPEC in order for all three countries to profit from its potential, according to Dawn.
The Prime Minister made these comments while speaking during the fourth Milgem class corvette’s launch at the Karachi Shipyard on Tuesday, where Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz was also present.
Speaking at the ceremony in Karachi, the PM stated that while Port Qasim was a centre, Gwadar, where the business had “just started,” needed to be connected.
Notably, CPEC is a flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Beijing’s international infrastructure investment programme, known as the BRI, a term established by China’s Xi Jinping in 2013, was created to rebuild China’s Silk Road, which linked Asia with Africa and Europe in order to boost trade and economic development, as per CNN.
Each year, the effort has seen billions of dollars poured into infrastructure projects, including the construction of ports from Sri Lanka to West Africa, the paving of motorways from Papua New Guinea to Kenya, and the provision of power and telecoms infrastructure for people in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
