P E S H A W A R : Pakhtunkhwa Olasi Tehreek convener Dr Said Alam Mehsud briefed the parliamentary leaders of different parties in the provincial assembly on the changes being made to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

He told them that entire Khyber Palchtunkhwa and Balochistan were ignored in the project. He urged them to work for keeping intact the western route of the corridor as per the decision of All Parties Conference.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, QWP parliamentary leader Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, ANP parliamentary leader Syed Jafar Shah, PML-N leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalutha and JUI-F leader Advocate Munwar Khan attended the briefing.

Munawar Khan told Dawn that Dr Said Alam Mehsud briefed them about the changes being made to the proposed project. `What we heard at the briefing was alarming as western route of the corridor has been ignored completely and government is going preference to eastern portion of the project,` he said.

The JUI-F leader said that they were not aware of the changes being made to the actual plan of the economic corridor route. He said thatthe parliamentary leaders were told that whole Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were ignored in the project. The government was focusing on the portion, which was benefiting Punjab, he said.

Mr Khan said that following the briefing, they decided to discuss the issue in the provincial assembly on Tuesday.

He said that the parliamentary leaders demanded of the federal government to stick to the original plan of the corridor. The APC on May 28 decided that western portion of the corridor would be completed first.

He said that they asked the federal government to follow the APC decisions, otherwise they would start agitation against it. PML-N leader Sardar Aurganzeb Nalutha said that speaker always invited those people, who were against the federal government. The person, who briefed the lawmakers, manipulated facts, he alleged.

Mr Nalutha said that work on Burhan Interchange was underwayandsofarabout30 per cent work was completed.

He said that there should not be point scoring on a national project as it was likely to affect the country. However, he said that they also called for carrying out the project as per the APC decisions.Bureau Report