Pak's deficit level pushed to 'unsustainable levels' due to CPEC, says EFSAS

China through its "debt trap diplomacy" and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has pushed Pakistan's deficit to "unsustainable levels", said European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS). "China's debt trap diplomacy in Pakistan, and it ambitious infrastructural endeavour, called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has pushed Pakistan's deficits to unsustainable levels and is progressively subjugating the country to Beijing's terms and conditions," Yoana Barakova, the research analyst of EFSAS, said during a lecture on 'The Conflict in Kashmir' on Monday.

He said despite the "irrefutable evidence", Pakistan continues to use terrorism as a tool to promote its "political goals". "Pakistan has rarely in its history been confronted with such wide spectrum of challenges as it faces today as a consequence of its support for terror and the question remains whether the country is genuinely willing to take firm, decisive and demonstrable action against the terrorist empire it has created and nurtured over decades, or whether it will continue to use terrorism as a tool to further its political goals, all the while denying that it is doing so in the face of irrefutable evidence and isolation, he added.

Meanwhile, Junaid Qureshi, Director EFSAS has accused Pakistan of enforcing communal passions among the Muslim majority population, adding that "violence in the Kashmir Valley was religious in character rather than political, being dominated by a group of militant leaders acting increasingly under a Pan-Islamic ideology." 

(With inputs from agencies.)