Despite Pakistan facing an unprecedented financial crisis, its all-weather friend China on Tuesday inked an agreement worth a whopping $4.8 billion in order to set up a 1,200-megawatt nuclear power plant. Calling it a major victory in increasing strategic cooperation between the two nations, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed gratitude to Beijing for exhibiting trust at a time when the country is facing such massive economic turbulence.
Under the recently brokered deal, Beijing would build a 1,200-megawatt Chashma-V nuclear plant at Chashma in the Mianwali district of Punjab. Further, elaborating on the project, he asserted that Islamabad will try its best to complete the task within the promised time frame. Notably, this was not the first time when China invested heavily in Pakistan.
Earlier, President Xi Jinping’s led government invested heavily in 3,000-km long infrastructure projects connecting China’s northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Gwadar Port in the western province of Balochistan in Pakistan. The project is also touted as CPEC. In this project, China faced a massive loss due to Pakistan’s inability to complete the project within the promised date. However, this time, PM Sharif did not want to anger its neighbouring country and said, “We will kick start it without any further delay”. he said as he lambasted the previous government under Imran Khan for delaying the key power project.
He said under a difficult economic situation, Pakistan was getting an investment of $4.8 billion from China in this project, which “sends the message that Pakistan is a place where Chinese companies and investors continue to show their trust and faith”. Sharif said the Chinese companies gave special concessions which would save billions of rupees in this project.
