RAWALPINDI: On the directions of the federal government, the police across Punjab have been asked to undertake vetting of all those working with Chinese nationals on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

According to sources, the Punjab government issued directives to the divisional police chiefs, deputy inspector general of Special Protection Unit (SPU) and Special Branch to carry out the vetting.

During the process, details and particulars of all Pakistani staff working on the CPEC projects will be collected.

The government has also directed to provide lists of all Pakistani nationals to be hired for the CPEC projects before their actual induction on a regular basis.

A senior police official, who requested not to be named, told Dawn that since a Chinese engineer went missing from Karot power project in Kahuta on Dec 20, 2017, the vetting of all Pakistani nationals working on CPEC projects had been started.

`Complete particulars of Pakistani workers, including their home addresses as well as character and other activities, will be checked by the security officials to ensure that they had no links with any proscribed organisation or had not been involved in any criminal case in the past.

He said soon after the Chinese engineer went missing, the standard operating procedure for security was also reviewed and foolproof security arrangements were made.

More than 1,100 Chinese nationals have been working on seven projects, including 820 on one project in Rawalpindi district. The others are working in Attock.

Hundreds of Pakistani nationals are also working on the CPEC projects.

`The vetting of local workers has been our top priority since the Chinese engineer went missing,` the police of ficial said.

The Punjab government had already directed intelligence agencies to check if any Afghan nationals were working on the CPEC projects without security clearance from the Special Branch.