Maryam Nawaz, the head of Pakistan’s most populous region, has said that Chinese nationals living in Pakistan get “resentful” when they are asked to follow security protocols. These sharp remarks came days after Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed in a suicide bombing last week while travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bus was attacked in Bisham city of Shangla district.
This comment came as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered at least five senior police officials to be punished for negligence after a suicide bomber killed Chinese engineers at a major dam site last month. Punjab CM Maryam, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, while addressing her maiden Apex Committee meeting in Lahore said, “the Chinese living here do not want to follow security discipline”. “They are resentful when they are asked to follow security protocols. They don’t want to come under any discipline as they fret over it,” she added.
The meeting, held on Friday, was also attended by Corps Commander Lahore Lt Gen Syed Aamer Raza and other senior military officers. Maryam, however, expressed her government’s resolve to provide fool-proof security to the Chinese nationals working on development projects in Punjab. The meeting also condemned the killing of Chinese engineers in Bisham.
50-year-old Maryam, who became the first-ever woman chief minister of a province in Pakistan, said terrorism has taken the shape of difficult warfare. “Terrorists got digitalised and we need to be ahead of them on such platforms. Besides, terrorists have the latest weapons and technology. They have the US weapons which they got in Afghanistan. The weapons coming from Afghanistan are a big challenge for the law enforcement agencies,” she said.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party leader added that the youth is also being brainwashed and recruited by terrorists. “And social media is one of the major tools being used for the purpose,” Maryam said. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed all the security agencies to ensure fool-proof security arrangements for the Chinese nationals working on various projects in the country.
Hundreds of Chinese people are employed at the Dasu and Diamer Bhasha dam construction sites, located around 100 kilometres apart in the mountainous region. Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said a committee appointed by PM Shehbaz identified a regional official, three district officials and the director of security at the Dasu dam project for their “negligence” in fulfilling their duties.
(With agency inputs)
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