The government announced on Monday that it would not ask for foreign aid to rebuild the areas destroyed by devastating floods in progress, because Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was a committee to assess damages to cultures, shelter and means of subsistence. The Minister of Planning, Ahsan Iqbal, who announced the government’s decision not to contract foreign loans for reconstruction activities, also said that Pakistan could not contract a new loan from China for the main line project because of its inability to reimburse the former loans who are returned each year.
"Pakistan will undertake the rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged areas using its own financial resources and without taking external aid," Iqbal said, while addressing a press conference. The Minister also spoke during the launching ceremony of the monthly development report, prepared by the office of chief economists of the planning committee. The report indicated that until now, nearly 9,200 houses have been damaged, 671 kilometers long have won and 239 bridges fell. Iqbal said the Prime Minister was a committee on Monday that would assess damages to cultures, houses and infrastructure and that rehabilitation and reconstruction needs would be assessed. Ahsan Iqbal will chair the committee. He said that the actual cost of damage can only be known once the water is receding in the next two weeks. His statement came a few days after the Minister of Finance, Muhammad Aurangzeb, said that Pakistan had not prepared investable projects to use $ 11 billion, promised by foreign lenders at the Geneva conference almost three years ago. "Let us accept that we could not find investable projects to benefit from the billions of dollars promised in Geneva," Aurangzeb said. However, Iqbal denied that Pakistan remained unable to fully use the promises of Conferences in Geneva. "There is not even a dollar that is not engaged, because it is the period of gestation of the project which takes more time"said the Minister of Planning. IQBAL said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) had already approved $ 3.7 billion in projects against commitments linked to the $ 6.4 billion project. But the Ministry of Economic Affairs informed the Public Accounts Committee (CAP) that of $ 6.4 billion in project financing projects projects, only $ 2.8 billion was in fact disbursed. Overall, foreign lenders had promised $ 11 billion – including $ 4.6 billion for oil financing and $ 6.4 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction – but disbursements remained limited due to the absence of credible projects. To a question on the need to have the Kalabagh dam, the Minister of Planning said that no dam could be built without first published the national consensus. Development in China, the Minister said that Pakistan and China had agreed to hold the 14th meeting of the CPEC joint cooperation committee on September 26. He added that it was expected that at the meeting or after, the two parties would sign the financing agreement for the construction of phase II of Karakoram-Highway. China will grant a loan for KKH-II equal to 85% of the cost of the project, he added. He confirmed that Chinese financing as part of the CPEC was not available for the ML-I project. "It was also agreed between Pakistan and China that multilateral funding would be explored for the construction of the ML-I project," said the minister. His statement took place a few days after Islamabad asked the Asian Development Bank (BAD) to fully finance the Mainline-I railway project (ML-I) of nearly $ 7 billion (ML-I) in consortium with other multilateral lenders after failing to obtain funding from China.
"It was inappropriate for Pakistan to contract more loans for the ML-I project, in particular after the Exim Bank of China has already reduced the old loans each year," said the Minister of Planning, while justifying the Chinese decision not to give any loan for the solely important declared project of the CPEC. The country has waited for almost a decade for the financing commitment of 85% of China for the project. The government has now returned to the BAD, which wanted to finance in 2016 but retired due to the insistence of Beijing on single funding. The BAD based in Manila, as well as the Asian Investment in Infrastructure (AIIB), showed the desire to provide funding of around 60% for the Karachi-Rohri section, the Express PK Press Club reported. However, Iqbal said that China would extend its support to obtain BAD and AIIB loans for the ML-I project. He blamed the PTI government to have delayed the ML-I project and also to put a radius of Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway. He said that the BAD team was investigating for the construction of the ML-I Karachi-Rohri section. The government estimated the cost of the section at $ 2 billion and the Rohri-Multan section at $ 1.6 billion, which is only $ 3.6 billion. However, it is expected that due to international competitive auctions, the total cost will always be lower than the cost provided for in the bilateral framework. The Minister said that China also agreed to consider investing in the mining sector. The two parties also agreed to create two special economic zones for the relocation of the Chinese industries, said the minister shortly after his return from Beijing.
