China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) stands for a cluster of infrastructural projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan. Originally valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects is now worth $62 billion.
More than half of this amount is ticked off for generating electricity while the remaining sums of money are proposed to be spent on constructing as well as rebuilding roads, seaports, airports, fiber optic cables, agricultural enterprises, tourist spots and cement factories in Pakistan.
Pakistan is earnestly looking forward to the rapid execution of CPEC as Pakistan thinks the proposed massive investments from China would add a broad magnitude of pace to Pakistan's struggling economy.
At the same time CPEC is viewed by experts as Pakistan's strategic bulwark against its longstanding opponent India. Therefore, the implementation of CPEC in the middle of the ongoing circumstances is very much likely to create a lot of diplomatic and geopolitical tussles according to prognosis by political observers.
Geopolitical analysts have meanwhile predicted that Pakistan's honeymoon with China over CPEC is very much unlikely to persist. According to political scientists since Pakistan army holds strong influence over Pakistan's civil administration, the Chinese firms getting into Pakistan through CPEC will get disillusioned quite shortly because of inevitable regimentation and reproach by Pakistan military authorities.
Besides, China will also find it very difficult to work on the soil of Pakistan due to Pakistan's radical Islamist groups. Judging from these two angles, even if CPEC is materialized its sustenance is most likely to be very much uncertain and shaky.
These predictions about CPEC, if proven right, would beyond doubts punch harder blows to ties between Beijing and Islamabad. Things may not remain much palatable consequently.
Relevant sources have informed China has so far aided Pakistan since Pakistan's independence with 78 billion US dollars for facilitating Pakistan's military and economic mobilizations. However, Pakistan's failure to eradicate terrorists and religious fanaticism remains a spiky pole irritating China much frequently.
Reportedly a great deal of Pakistani people appeared to be much annoyed after they came to know about the outline of CPEC plan through some newspapers published from Karachi, Islamabad and other major Pakistani cities.
A huge portion of CPEC is supposed to be carried out by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) which belongs to Chinese defense ministry. Aware citizens of Pakistan and the country's civic society members are worried about the probable direct intervention of Chinese defense authorities with Pakistan's internal affairs if CPEC comes into effect.
On the other hand, Xinjiang's Muslim inhabitants often get into troublesome conflicts with Chinese law and order forces. From this point of view Xinjiang's involvement with Pakistan's industrial and infrastructural projects has already triggered anxiety among the civilians of Pakistan living in the concerned areas.
Furthermore, Chinese engineers are building up two 1100 megawatt nuclear reactors west of Karachi. Environmental trepidations have come up among the ecologists of Pakistan about the adverse effects of nuclear radioactivity across the region.
Lots of Pakistani manufacturers have repeatedly complained that the commodities they produce are facing many hurdles in Pakistan due to the widespread availability of Chinese goods which has happened because of a free trade deal signed in 2007 between Islamabad and Beijing.
Most of the Pakistani economists have in the meantime expressed their concern that if CPEC is implemented Pakistan's economy would run the risk of being totally colonized by Chinese private and state-owned firms.