Pakistan - Former President Zardari paving way for Pak-China corridor

The political leadership of the country on Thursday gathered at Zardari House at a dinner hosted by former president Asif Ali Zardari in a bid to create broad-based political ownership of mega economic projects like the Economic Corridor.

The event turned into an informal forum of political parties to discuss issues of national importance ranging from the Pakistan-China economic corridor, provincial autonomy, National Finance Commission (NFC) award and election reforms besides other issues.

Zardari’s Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said before the dinner a meeting of the leaders was held in which heads of all parties expressed their views on issues facing the country.

The main aim of the meeting was to bring all political parties to create a consensus on the mega economic projects like the Economic Corridor on which major political parties have reservations and there was a demand that the government should take parliament and the political parties into confidence on this issue.

Political parties belonging to the smaller provinces were upset over the Economic Corridor project and wanted that the government come clean on this issue.In his opening remarks, Zardari stressed the need for developing political consensus on issues of national importance based on transparency. “Without broad-based political ownership of mega economic projects and policies, the national economy will not make progress,” he said.

Zardari said it was important that the political forces join hands, identify issues of critical national importance, seek to develop a consensus on them and, respecting each others’ mandate, raise the threshold of mutual tolerance.

Those who participated in the meeting from the PPP included former prime ministers Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan, Sherry Rehman, Rehman Malik, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Senator Saleem Mandviwala, Dr Qayum Soomro, Senator Farhatullah Babar and Nadeem Afzal Chan.

From the PML (N), Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal and Information Minister Pervez Rashid participated; the JUI-F, was represented by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and senator Talha Mahmood; from PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar and Shafqat Mahmood; from PML-Q Mushahid Hussain Sayed; from PkMAP Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Israrullah Zehri and Ihsan Shah from the BNP (Awami) attended the meeting.

During the meeting, the government assured that the prime minister will take all political parties into confidence on the Economic Corridor Project to remove reservations of the political parties.