CPEC: Ambassador Masood Khan Addresses PIIA Members

Balochistan will be main beneficiary of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not a single road. Instead, it is a network of opportunity which will spur the growth of industrial zones supported by energy plants, connecting Kashgar in China to Gwadar. Balochistan should be the primary beneficiary of the project. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will also benefit from it as there is no discrimination against any province. These were some of the points canvassed by Masood Khan, Director-General of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad and Pakistan’s former permanent representative to the United Nations in a lecture titled ‘Pakistan: security challenges and opportunities’ in the library of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs on Wednesday.

Before his talk, Mr Khan expressed his sadness at the tragedy that had taken place in the city in the morning in which 43 members of the Ismaili community were murdered in a bus. He termed the dastardly act “a sad day in our history”. Mr Khan commenced his lecture by focusing on national security underlining four important things — ideology of Pakistan, sovereignty and territorial integrity, social and economic development and development of democracy. Drawing parameters for that he said, “national security is human security,” a synthesis of aspirations and intentions of the people of Pakistan where “people are the centre”. National security, he said, depended upon internal and external environments.