KARACHI: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) still remains functional despite the recent outbreak of coronavirus in the region that has claimed about 170 lives, officials said on Friday.
“Pakistan has taken steps, including screening of the incoming passengers from China, to prevent the spread of virus in the country,” Senator Kauda Babar, member of Senate’s Standing Committee on CPEC, told Arab News on Friday.
The senator hails from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province that is highly significant for the multibillion dollar corridor project due to the deep-sea port in Gwadar.
“As far as CPEC is concerned, those who are working on the project are in Pakistan and those who are arriving from China will be properly screened,” he added.
“Only 10 to 15 percent people working on the project may be traveling, and they are not necessarily from Wuhan. The situation has not impacted the corridor project,” Babar said.
Experts believe, however, that the coronavirus outbreak in China may impact Pakistan’s economy, slowing down the Chinese-funded projects.
“The Chinese economy itself is likely to suffer from the outbreak and that is likely to create a similar impact on the projects being done in Pakistan. At least, the contagion can cause delays for a brief period,” Mazhar Ali Nasir, patron-in-chief of the Pakistan-China Business Council, told Arab News. “People will remain cautious while traveling to china for business and tourism purposes for at least three to six months.”
The aviation authority in the country on Wednesday stalled direct flights between Pakistan and China. “All direct flights between Pakistan and China are to be stalled on immediate basis, initially till February 2, 2020, subject to subsequent review,” a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) notification read.
In another move, the country’s Port Health Establishment department directed customs authorities to abstain from clearing cargo without fumigation.
“The second hand clothing/used shoes and other worn articles should not be cleared without fumigation under the supervision of Port Health Establishment Karachi till further orders,” a notification issued on Friday read.
Chinese health authorities confirmed 7,711 cases of coronavirus in the country on January 29 while the death toll from the outbreak went above 170. Chinese authorities trying to contain the virus are optimistic about providing the vaccine within the next three months.
Experts say, however, that the impact of the deadly coronavirus on the Chinese economy could also slow down the global economy.
“The real scenario will emerge after the end of the extended nationwide holidays in China next week. The economic impact would be higher if China further extends the break,” Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Khurram Ijaz commented.
Pakistan has imported goods worth $4.88 billion from China during the first six months of the current fiscal year (FY20), the State Bank of Pakistan reveals.
Chinese workers on CPEC projects 'properly screened' — officials
https://arab.news/4txnu
Chinese workers on CPEC projects 'properly screened' — officials
- Government stalls direct flights between Pakistan and China, makes fumigation of cargo mandatory
- Experts say the Chinese economy is likely to suffer due to the pandemic
Pakistani man convicted in US in political assassination plot tied to Iranian paramilitary
- Asif Merchant, 47, worked for Pakistani banks for decades before going into clothing and other businesses
- He testified he met a Revolutionary Guard operative who gave him countersurveillance training, assignments
NEW YORK: A Pakistani business owner who tried to hire hit men to kill a US politician was convicted Friday in a trial that showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil.
As the Iran war unfolded in the Mideast, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a US court that he sought to put an assassination in motion during the 2024 presidential campaign — a plot that was quickly disrupted by American investigators before it had a chance to proceed.
A jury in Brooklyn convicted Merchant on terrorism and murder for hire charges.
The verdict after only a couple hours of deliberations followed a weeklong trial that included remarkable testimony from Merchant himself.
Merchant told the jury he was carrying out instructions from a contact in the Islamic Republic’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to Merchant, the handler never specified a target but broached names including then-candidate Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador who was also in the race for a time.
The Iranian government has denied trying to kill US officials.
The nascent plot fell apart after Merchant showed an acquaintance what he had in mind by using objects on a napkin to depict a shooting at a rally. He asked the man to help him hire assassins. Instead, he was introduced to undercover FBI agents who were secretly recording him, as had the acquaintance.
Merchant told the supposed hit men he needed services that could include killing “some political person” and paid them $5,000 in cash in a parked car in Manhattan.
“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement released after the conviction.
Merchant’s attorney, Avraham Moskowitz, didn’t immediately reply to a message seeking comment.
Merchant, 47, worked for Pakistani banks for decades before going into clothing and other businesses. He has two families, in Pakistan and Iran, and he sometimes visited the US for his garment business.
Merchant testified that he met a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative about three years ago. The contact gave him countersurveillance training and assignments including the assassination scheme, Merchant said.
He maintained that he had to do his handler’s bidding to protect loved ones in Iran. The defendant said he reluctantly went through the motions but thought he’d be arrested and explain his situation to authorities before anyone was killed.
“I was going along with it,” he said, speaking in Urdu through a court interpreter.
Prosecutors emphasized that Merchant admitted taking steps to enact the plan on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, which the US considers a foreign terrorist organization, and he didn’t proactively go to authorities.
Instead, he was packing for a flight to Pakistan when he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania. Officials said it appeared the Butler gunman acted alone but that they had been tracking a threat on Trump’s life from Iran, a claim that the Islamic Republic called “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
When Merchant subsequently spoke to FBI agents to explore the possibility of a cooperation agreement, he didn’t say he had acted out of fear for his family.
Prosecutors argued that he didn’t back up a defense of acting under duress. Merchant sought to persuade jurors he simply didn’t think the agents would believe him because they seemed to “think that I am some type of super-spy,” which he said he was “absolutely not.”
