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T he umpire was on his side and the field had been set in his favor – there was little that stood between Imran Khan and power. And China took no chances. The prospects for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (19659002) The prospects for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (1965) The prospects for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (1965, p. CPEC), "The flagship of President Xi Jinping's B elt and Road Initiative," said China's state-run Global Times . "Beyond doubt, Beijing expects a higher degree of engagement by the new Pakistani government in the CPEC," wrote Liu Lulu, described as a Chinese "expert" in retweets posted on election day by Lijian Zhao, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese embbady in Islamabad.
Beijing has long been suspicious of Khan. His party, known as the PTI after its Urdu-language acronym, staged a five-month sit-in in the government district of Islamabad in 2014, forcing a one-year postponement to the schedule of President Xi Jinping Uncleil the CPEC master plan to connect Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea.
Chinese diplomats have lobbied the PTI intensely since, but with limited success. The master plan for CPEC was expanded in 2015 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, led by a coalition led by Khan's party. By then, however, PTI activists had been prominent Pakistanis questioning whether CPEC was a modern-day equivalent of the East India Company, which ruled the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century.
The PTI subsequently toned down its rhetoric, CPEC by persistently criticizing Chinese-funded mbad transit projects in three cities of the populous eastern Punjab province, Shahbaz Sharif, brother of the recently ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. The PTI characterizes the projects as a waste of money that has been spent in the CPEC projects.
PTI politicians also got a news story about corruption in a CPEC- Multan last year in the center of the city, drawing an angry public riposte from China. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close ally of Khan, has declared it to be a CPEC power generation project by Shahbaz Sharif
Pakistan's new boss will be bossed just like the old boss
The politics over CPEC Sharif brothers' Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has joined forces with Khan to power. Election staff are said to have slowed down the process of many polling stations by limiting the number of voters and denying the length of their ballots. The counting process has been similarly tainted, with claims that opposition polling agents in key constituencies had been forced out and votes stolen blatantly. Provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan showed Khan's PTI had won 116 of the 260 declared seats (in a house of 270).
"I've been covering elections for 30 years. Never seen anything like this, "tweeted editor Aamer Ahmed Khan. "
Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, the chairman of a group of Pakistan's most influential Islamist parties," If I was part of an institution tasked with rigging an election, I would be seriously worried about my own competence after tonight's performance. " (19659002) China is central to the first governance challenge facing Asad Umar, the PTI's finance minister in waiting. What he will have to address is a balance of payments crisis sparked, in part, by record imports of Chinese machinery for CPEC projects.
What do you get if you cross Pakistan's Game of Thrones and China? S Belt and Road?
A leading critic of the last government borrowing levels, Umar would have to reach an understanding with China on remedial measures, including a probable bailout application to the International Monetary Fund. That would be the subject of the CPEC financing in the middle of Washington's trade with Beijing.
As a looming looms program, the Khan's administration will be determined by its future spending plans. Chinese-funded projects, the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the first article of the paper on the development of the Asian Development Bank, turning down Beijing's offer to add it to CPEC.
In his televised victory speech, however, Khan tried to rebadure China; it was the first country referred to as being of a foreign policy, and it was often referred to "I will send a team to China to learn how it brought 660 million people out of poverty," he said. He also said that he would like to receive CPEC to attract foreign direct investment for the sake of young Pakistanis.
Still, Khan's messaging suggests his views on China and CPEC could "diverge a bit" from the army, more previous Sharif administration, said Michael Kugelman, badociate at The Wilson Center think tank. "That said, I can not imagine the PTI trying to take its China policy in a direction that could provoke tensions with Beijing. There is a deep political consensus in Pakistan to maintain and deepen its embrace of China, particularly as Pakistan's relationship with Washington goes south. "
In any case, were China ever to find itself at odds with Khan, it does have recourse to the Pakistani military, the ultimate umpire and Khan's benefactor. "If the military, which has the final say on foreign policy, feels the PTI is going astray, it would likely be reinitiated," Kugelman said. ■
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