By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged on Friday to spare no effort protecting Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, delivering his most emphatic assurance yet as the two countries signed nine pharmaceutical and healthcare agreements worth roughly $440 million.
“I would like to say with fullest force at my command that the security of Chinese brothers and sisters in Pakistan is paramount for us, it is most important,” Sharif told business leaders and officials gathered for the Pakistan-China Pharmaceutical and Healthcare B2B Investment Conference. “We will leave no stone unturned to provide them with the best possible security.”
The prime minister’s words carried particular weight given the circumstances surrounding them. Just two days earlier, State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry had announced that authorities were reinforcing security around the Chinese-operated Saindak copper and gold mine in Balochistan, after militants disrupted supply routes into the region. That announcement itself followed the launch of Operation Shaban, a sweeping counterterrorism campaign security forces began after a string of deadly attacks in the province.
The threat to Chinese nationals in Pakistan is not new, but it has proven persistent and lethal. Data compiled by the National Counter Terrorism Authority showed that between 2021 and December 2024, 20 Chinese citizens were killed and 34 more injured in attacks across the country. The violence has struck some of Pakistan’s most consequential infrastructure projects.
In March 2024, a suicide bombing in Bisham killed five Chinese nationals who had been working on the Dasu dam project. Two years earlier, in April 2022, a suicide attack outside the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi killed three Chinese nationals and one other person, an assault claimed by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army. And in July 2021, nine Chinese engineers and two Frontier Corps soldiers were among 12 people killed when militants attacked a bus near the Dasu hydropower plant in Upper Kohistan district.
Against that backdrop, Sharif used Friday’s conference to press forward with the economic relationship those attacks have repeatedly threatened to derail. He framed the newly signed agreements as more than symbolic, describing them as the foundation for what he called the next phase of Chinese investment in Pakistan.
“These agreements will most definitely convert into actions and implementable documents, and I think this is a step forward in promoting CPEC 2.0,” he said, referring to an expanded iteration of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the infrastructure and investment program that has anchored bilateral ties for more than a decade.
Sharif said the pharmaceutical deals would eventually lead to the manufacturing of life-saving medicines and vaccines within Pakistan, along with expanded research and development capacity, positioning the country to export those products to neighboring markets.
“I think this will ultimately result in manufacturing life-saving medicines, vaccines, research and development and become a center of excellence for exporting our wonderful products to neighboring countries,” he said.
The prime minister was expansive in his praise of Beijing, calling his recent visit to China “wonderful” and describing the country as one of Pakistan’s “most trusted and dependable friends.” He credited China with standing by Pakistan through what he called its most difficult periods, both economically and diplomatically, and pointed to the more than $30 billion China invested during the first phase of CPEC as evidence of the relationship’s depth.
“China stood by Pakistan through thick and thin, through the most difficult times, promoting Pakistan’s economic trajectory, supporting Pakistan’s stand at international forums and joining hands together in CPEC 1.0, where more than $30 billion was invested by China in Pakistan — the single largest investment portfolio,” he said.
He went further still, crediting Chinese President Xi Jinping personally for his country’s economic rise. “The world cannot move without China, and I think this great achievement couldn’t have been without the very forward-looking dynamic leadership of President Xi Jinping,” Sharif said.
The prime minister also credited Pakistan with playing a mediating role in a recent unspecified regional crisis, saying friendly nations, particularly China, had supported that effort. He singled out contributions from Xi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, as well as from Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief and chief of defence forces, and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, both of whom he credited for their roles in diplomatic engagements tied to the crisis.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
