Government to wrap up CPEC Authority

• "CPEC authority will stay alive, it is only being assimilated into a secretariat," an official of planning ministry says.
• As per media reports, newly merged CPEC Authority will be headed by the PML-Q’s Chaudhry Salik Hussain.
• CPEC secretariat consists of two wings — the CPEC Support Project and the CPEC Centre of Excellence.

The new government will be winding up the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority by merging it with the CPEC secretariat.

The previous government had set up the Authority in 2019 through an ordinance. Its former chairman was retired Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa, who took charge in November 2019 for four years but resigned prematurely in August 2021.

After rolling out the CPEC Authority, the CPEC secretariat was made inactive during former prime minister Imran Khan’s tenure. But now the secretariat, which consists of two wings — the CPEC Support Project and the CPEC Centre of Excellence — has been made operational again.

Read more: Slow pace of CPEC lost Pakistan $40 billion, says Ahsan Iqbal

As per media reports, the newly-merged CPEC Authority, which has been without a chairman since Bajwa resigned, will be headed by the PML-Q’s Chaudhry Salik Hussain. However, the new Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal told a local publication that he was not aware of any such move.

“The CPEC authority will stay alive, it is only being assimilated into the secretariat,” Ayesha Khan, an official of the ministry of planning and development told Geo.tv.

The CPEC Authority plunged into a controversy soon after it was established, for it was seen as a parallel body to the ministry of planning for the duplication of powers and roles.