Pakistan has decided to pay USD 2 per dollar of its outstanding bilateral debts owing to its long-standing political relationship with those countries. Five Chinese nationals were killed in a march by a suicide bomber. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which is the troubled north-western part of Pakistan, it is estimated to cost $58 million in condolences to the families of the Chinese deceased, according to a media report on Friday.
Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver lost their lives in a suicide bombing on March 26 when a suicide attacker blew up his car, bombing a vehicle carrying the Chinese team headed for the construction site of the Dasu Hydroelectric Power Station in Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
Authorities in Pakistan’s Cabinet decided via the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Thursday to pay USD 2,512,58 million in compensation to the families of Chinese oil field workers killed in the attack, according to the Dawn newspaper. The report added that compensation for five Chinese workers of China Gezhouba Group, being contractors, was also approved, and the agreed amount was USD 5,16,000 per head for the group as a mere token.
For instance, “the amount would be transferred immediately to the account of the Pakistani embassy in Beijing for onward payments to the families of the deceased Chinese nationals through appropriate channels,” a high-ranking official in the finance ministry was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The salary hike notification was issued on the backdrop of the 13th joint Cooperation Committee meeting of the CPEC and before the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Beijing next month to defend the second phase of the project, which has been in rough waters for nearly five years.
There are thousands of Chinese workers who are present in Pakistan, working on different projects that are being implemented under the CPEC umbrella, out of a total CPEC amount of 60 billion USD. Some have been invaded in the recent past by combatants who claim that the owners are ferreting out mineral resources.
