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ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday announced the launch of the second phase of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during an investment conference in Beijing, vowing to safeguard Chinese nationals working in the country and accelerate stalled projects.

Sharif was in China on a six-day visit that began with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) heads of state summit in Tianjin earlier this week. He has since held talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as met Chinese business leaders at a large investment forum.

CPEC, first signed in 2015, is a multi-billion-dollar network of roads, railways, ports and power plants linking western China to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan. A flagship of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Pakistan’s Planning Commission (CPEC Secretariat) reported last year that completed and ongoing CPEC projects were worth about $25.4 billion, with another $8 billion under implementation, putting the total Chinese investment at around $33 billion so far.

The scheme’s second phase, branded “CPEC 2.0,” aims to expand beyond roads and energy into industry, agriculture, information technology and special economic zones, with Islamabad looking to revive growth and attract new Chinese capital.

“Today we are ready to launch CPEC 2.0 and this CPEC 2.0 would comprise of B2B investments … in agriculture,” Sharif told Chinese business leaders. “And then of course is another very important area IT and AI where China is a world leader and then mines and minerals is another very important potential area of mutual cooperation … These are the pillars of CPEC 2.0.”

The prime minister stressed agriculture’s role as “the backbone” of Pakistan’s economy, which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP, and urged Chinese companies to bring expertise and investment into the sector.

Sharif also sought to reassure investors about security and bureaucratic delays that have plagued projects.

“The question obviously which is concerning most of you is about security in Pakistan, but I want to make it clear … that security of Chinese brothers and sisters in Pakistan is paramount for all of us,” he said.

The premier added: “Delays take place, there are impediments … So let me assure you … we will not tolerate even a second’s delay in taking decisions to facilitate you to invest in Pakistan.”

CPEC has been repeatedly targeted by militants. In March 2024, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver near the Dasu hydropower project in northwestern Pakistan. In October the same year, two Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide attack near Karachi airport. Separatist groups in Balochistan, where China has interests in port and mines projects, among others, accuse China of exploiting local resources, allegations Beijing and Islamabad reject.

Sharif said Pakistan’s economy had stabilized and was ready for renewed foreign investment, adding that “sky is the limit” for Chinese ventures under CPEC 2.0.

Pakistan has been implementing reforms under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund program approved in September 2024, focused on tax collection, energy sector restructuring and privatization of state-owned firms.

The measures have helped stabilize public finances, rebuild foreign exchange reserves and improve international credit ratings, with Fitch Ratings upgrading Pakistan’s outlook to positive in mid-2025. Officials say the steps are crucial for restoring investor confidence and laying the groundwork for sustainable growth in the South Asian nation.

KARACHI: While Pakistan’s southern Sindh province remains busy with safety precautions as it braces for floods heading downstream from Punjab, farmers in the province’s coastal district await the arrival of river water, saying it would prevent the sea from swallowing their lands and provide better catch for fishers. 

Devastating floods in Punjab have killed 43 and displaced more than 1.8 million people, authorities have said. Excess releases from Indian dams and heavy monsoon showers have destroyed crops in Punjab, caused rivers to swell and affected more than 3.6 million people.

Sharjeel Inam Memon, information minister of the Sindh government, said floodwaters are expected to enter the province at Guddu Barrage between September 5 and 6, adding that the administration was “fully prepared” to deal with the situation.

“All the arrangements have been made, the government has established relief camps and is evacuating the population along with animals and livestock,” he told Arab News, adding that he could not rule out the possibility of “super floods.”

The term is used by officials in Pakistan to describe exceptionally high flood levels that exceed normal seasonal flows, often overwhelming barrages and embankments.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) warns that floods heading downstream may cause similar devastation in Sindh, Gulab Shah, a 52-year-old farmer from Jhaloo village near the coastal town of Keti Bunder in Thatta district, waits for the river water to arrive. 

Seawater intrusion into the delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea in Sindh, has triggered the collapse of farming and fishing communities.

“Our ancestors have lived here for centuries,” Shah told Arab News. “There was a time when we owned thousands of acres of land, but due to the drying up of the delta, the sea has swallowed it all.”

Shah said his family of 100 people, comprising 12 brothers and two sisters, now makes do with only 350 acres. 

“Even on this land, rice no longer grows as it used to, and the banana crop has completely vanished,” he rued. 

Shah says flood upstream sometimes translates into survival for areas downstream. 

“We feel sorrow for those affected by floods in other regions, but whenever floods come, they bring water into the Indus River,” he said.

DYING RIVERS, INFERTILE PLAINS

Dr. Hassan Abbas, a hydrologist who earned his doctorate in water resources at Michigan State University, agrees the Indus Delta has shrunk and “almost died because the water did not reach there.”

“It’s just as important for the rivers to reach the sea as it is for the water to flow from your body,” Dr. Abbas explained. 

The hydrologist said Pakistan’s rivers have gotten smaller due to dams, saying that they have almost become almost dry. He said due to this, ecological services and environmental systems are “dying and under extreme stress.”

Dr. Abbas added that when floods halt upstream, salts that once washed into the sea remain on farmland, damaging the soil. 

“An estimated 60 million tons of salt, every year, used to be washed by the river into the sea,” he said. “Now, not even 10 million tons make it there.”

He noted that while floods cause destruction, they also make Pakistan’s plains fertile. 

“You have to adapt to the floods,” he said. “This system of floods, if it doesn’t exist, then your food basket will collapse.”

’MAJOR THREAT FROM THE SEA’

Along the coast, residents describe how the sea has encroached over the years as freshwater declines. Younus Khaskheli, chairman of the Sindh-based fisherfolk association MaHajjiri Samaji Sangat, recalled how dams built on rivers since 1960 have led to a decline in the mud and silt that flowed downstream. 

“So many islands have been cut off [now] that the sea is four to six kilometers ahead,” Khaskheli said. “From 1960 till now, about 1.2 million people migrated from there and came here.”

Khaskheli said 80 percent of the people who migrated were from the fishing communities. Mangrove forests, once spread over a million hectares in the province, had now shrunk to around 70,000 hectares due to the drying riverbed. 

“The people who say that the water of the river Sindh is wasted in the sea are not aware of the ecosystem,” he explained. “This is a natural process. The river brings silage and soil with it. The ecosystem circulates in this way.”

Memon shared Khaskheli’s concerns about the Indus Delta.

“The Indus Delta needs water every year,” he said, adding that it does not receive sufficient flows due to the decreased level of water in the Indus.

“This time there are chances, yes, that we will fulfill the requirement of the delta,” Memon added.

For others like Manzoor Ali Rind, who resides in Sindh’s Dadu district hundreds of kilometers away from the sea, previous floods wreaked havoc. Rind cultivates around 10 acres of farmland in Bux Ali Rind village in Dadu.

“When I hear the word flood, it takes me 15 years back when it wiped out my rice crops,” Rind told Arab News, recalling the devastation of the 2010 floods. 

“It took me years to stand on my feet again.”

But for farmers like Shah, who reside in coastal areas, the approaching sea serves as a stark reminder. He said his village used to be 25 kilometers away from the sea.

Now, it is only three kilometers away.

“We don’t know when the sea will swallow the little land we have left,” Shah said. “We want to be protected from the sea, and for that, it is essential that water flows in the river.”

After monsoon rains lashed Sindh in June, Shah saw something he hadn’t in a decade: the hilsa fish. 

“Now, whenever water comes, whether from rains or floods, we feel happy,” Shah said. “Because it brings prosperity for us and also protects us from a major threat from the sea.”