The chutzpah of the Pakistanis has just hit an all time high, with Commander of the Pakistani Southern Command, Lt General Amir Riaz inviting India to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor along with Iran, Afghanistan and other Asian countries, and “share the fruits of development by shelving the anti-Pakistan activities and subversion”. The CPEC is basically an economic corridor that aims to facilitate trade along an overland route connecting Kashgar in China and the Gwadar port in Pakistan, through a network of highways, railways and pipelines.

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He also claimed that Balochistan is “on the path to economic development” and its people were being mislead. This is laughable to the extreme in the wake of allegations of corruption against the Chinese, that forced Chinese Ambassador Lijan Zhao to take to Twitter to quote an old Chinese saying: “Gauge the heart of a gentleman with one’s own mean measure”.

Even if poor China may think itself a gentleman, it is surely is being quite over generous to its business partner. Not only are there allegations of unfair allocations of projects under CPEC, with a bulk of the benefit going to the Punjab province, but while Pakistani economist Sartaj Aziz has said a bulk of the loans taken under CPEC would be repaid at 1-2 per cent interest over the next 20-25 years, there are widespread fears the situation is going to leave Pakistan saddled with unserviceable debt.

Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Chaudhry Muhammad  Sarwar has expressed fears that corruption will be the greatest derailment to the CPEC, levelling accusations at the Pakistan Muslim league—Nawaz (PML-N). The infighting between political parties over the CPEC have provoked even the normally stoic Chinese into strong and unscripted responses on social media.

There have been allegations of inhuman working conditions that the Chinese are notorious for imposing, favouritism, and some experts fear that as per public documents, more than two-thirds of the money committed for Pakistan’s ‘early harvest’ projects are actually loaned on commercial terms at 7 to 8 per cent. The 2013 agreement signed between China and Pakistan sets the terms at “market principles”. This includes Sinosure, the fee for reinsurance of all loans that Chinese banks require all foreign borrowers to have.

It is feared is that Pakistan’s politicians will run away with the cuts, China with the interest, and the tax payer will be left feeding the white elephants. Kashmir becomes vital to their interests, or rather interest. Join us, you say? Thanks, but no thanks.