Pakistan’s Minister for Energy for Sindh province, Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh has slammed the federal government for restricting access to a UK-based company from investing in Thar Coal Block 6. The British company Oracle planned to invest billions of rupees in Thar coal block 6 that will increase power generation in Pakistan, but the federal government has put the prospectus on hold, Business Recorder reported citing a video statement by Shaikh.
“Oracle is interested in making investments in Thar coal to produce electricity, gas and fertiliser out of it, but this billion rupee investment has been put on hold by the federal government,” Shaikh said.
He also informed that the Imran-Khan led government was deliberately blocking alternative energy projects in Sindh and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has also rejected Sindh’s wind power project earlier.
Sheikh also informed that Thar Coal Block 6 project was not included in the meeting of the CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee, which is the largest forum of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor project.
CPEC, which is regarded as one of the most important components of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) initiative, has been denounced by various political parties in Pakistan.
Experts also believe that there is a looming sense of fear in Pakistan that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan will increase instability in its neighbourhood, and add security threats in the region while putting China’s Belt and Road projects at risk.
