Pakistan has decided to shelve a key power project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in view of the country's sufficient generation capacity. The government of Pakistan has already officially conveyed to China that it is no more interested in the 1320 MW Rahim Yar Khan power project while asking China to formally delete the project from the CPEC list, Pakistani newspaper The Dawn reported on Monday.
Analysing the development, an Indian professor of Chinese studies opines that step by the new government under Prime Minister Imran Khan is cautiously evaluating the projects to avoid increasing unnecessary financial obligations.
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"It not that Pakistan is losing interest in the CPEC but it is about getting the maximum out of what is there. China has invested a lot and surely wants a payback. Pakistan has been rethinking its strategy of taking huge amount as debt, which it is unable to repay. Some projects of CPEC face feasibility issues as they were signed in haste without due consideration of outcomes", Dr Geeta Kochhar, Assitant Professor at the Centre for Chinese and South-East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and visiting fellow in Fudan University, China told Sputnik.
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CPEC aims to connect Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province.
The Rahim Yar Khan power plant was pursued by the Quaid-i-Azam Thermal Company from Pakistan's Punjab government led by Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The project was removed from the priority list of the CPEC after it was found that surplus generation capacity had already been contracted and more contracts would lead the country to a capacity trap.
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