Pakistani President Arif Alvi on Friday assured Beijing’s top diplomat that his country would boost security for all Chinese working on multibillion-dollar projects in cash-strapped Pakistan.
China has been demanding more security from Pakistan for its nationals residing and working in the country since 2021, when a suicide bomber killed nine Chinese and four Pakistanis in an attack in Pakistan’s volatile northwest.
More recently, a Chinese working on the Dasu Dam, a Chinese-funded hydropower project and the biggest of its kind in Pakistan, was arrested on blasphemy charges after an angry mob accused him of insulting Islam when he criticized a coworker for taking too much time to pray during working hours.
Photo: AP
Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws carry the death penalty, and some times even a mere suggestion of blasphemy is enough to entice mobs to violence or lynching.
The Chinese man was subsequently released under a court order, but it remained unclear if he would face trial or be deported home.
Alvi pledged more security for Chinese workers during a meeting on Friday with visiting Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛). The two spoke ahead of a mini-summit in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, during which Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is to host Qin and Taliban-appointed Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Taliban has been shunned by most of the international community for the harsh and restrictive measures it has imposed since seizing power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war, particularly banning girls from education beyond the sixth grade and barring women from most jobs and public life.
In Pakistan, Beijing is bankrolling the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a sprawling package that includes a multitude of mega projects such as road construction, power plants and agriculture. The package is a lifeline for the cash-strapped Pakistani government, which is facing one of the worst economic crises amid stalled talks on a bailout with the IMF.
CPEC is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global endeavor aimed at linking China to all corners of Asia and beyond.
Alvi and Qin on Friday “reaffirmed their resolve to work together to promote regional peace and prosperity, as well as jointly cope with external challenges,” the Pakistani government said.
Alvi told the Chinese diplomat that Pakistan-China relations were “rooted in mutual trust” and understanding, it said.
The Chinese minister was quoted in the statement as saying that the two nations were “all-weather friends” whose friendship “was as solid as a rock.”
It was the second time that Muttaqi was visiting Pakistan since the Taliban takeover. Pakistan has lately expressed concern over a surge in attacks across the country by the Pakistani Taliban — an independent militant group that is allied with and sheltered by the Afghan Taliban.
Islamabad has demanded from the Taliban in Kabul that they do more to rein in anti-Pakistani groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, which have stepped up attacks on Pakistani security forces in the past few months.
Muttaqi was also expected to discuss the issue of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, as well as the two nations’ border issues.
In February, the two sides shut the main Afghan-Pakistan border crossing at Torkham, stranding people and thousands of trucks carrying food and essential items.
After a Pakistani delegation traveled to Kabul for talks on the crisis, the border was reopened a week later.
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