Punjab Minister P&D Chaired Inter-Ministerial Committee Meeting on CPEC and Development Framework Organized by P&D Department at Lahore

Friday, March 17, 2017

Punjab Planning & Development Department hosted a Meeting of Inter-Ministerial Committee on Mid-Term Development Framework of Punjab along the Western Corridor of China Pakistan Economic Corridor under the convenorship of Minister for Planning & Development Malik Nadeem Kamran. Ministers’ for Irrigation, Industries, Sports & Youth Affairs, C&W, Members’ National/Provincial Assembly, Chief Secretary, Chairman, P&D Board, Secretaries of various departments, government officials and other stakeholders attended the meeting.

Addressing the meeting Minister for Planning & Development Malik Nadeem Kamran said that all necessary steps must be taken to make CPEC a success. The Western Corridor of CPEC will provide fast and world class connectivity and for this special emphasis must be placed on development of Provincial roads, Highways, Industrial estates, housing colonies, Rain water harvesting projects, Inland Water Transport and establishment of technical education institutes in districts along the Western route of CPEC.

Addressing the participants, Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Saeed suggested the way forward stating that sector wise working groups comprising of relevant Ministers, secretaries, Sector experts and other stakeholders must be formulated in order to make sound evidence-based recommendations to present to the Chief Minister, Punjab for the uplifting of Districts along CPEC Western route.

At the meeting, Chairman P&D Board Jahanzeb Khan briefed the participants regarding the CPEC phased strategy and layout with emphasis on the Western Corridor of CPEC. The objective of the meeting was to deliberate on leveraging the Western corridor of CPEC development of Mianwlai, Chakwal and Attock Districts of Punjab and firm up its way forward. He informed that the western corridor under CPEC contains 285 KM road that has been divided further into five packages, for purpose of speedy execution. Four packages pass through Punjab and one through KPK. The corridor will be a four lane motorway, designed for 120 km/hour speed, and has eleven interchanges, P&D Chairman added.

During the meeting, Minister for Mines & Mineral Sher Ali Khan suggested that development of districts majorly including Attock, Chakwal and Mianwali was the need of time to address the future implications to be faced after the development of western route under CPEC. He emphasized that the main connectivity and linkages must be formulated with the mineral rich areas along the Western route to take maximum advantage of CPEC.

Parliamentarians Obaid Ullah Shadi Khel; Malik Aitbar Khan; Malik Zafar Iqbal; Asif Ali Malik; Inamullah Khan Niazi and other Political leadership from various districts of Punjab gave their suggestions regarding the development framework and key focus sectors such as Agriculture, Livestock, Minerals, Housing & Urban Development, Infrastructure and Industrial Development along the Western route.