The Finance Ministry issued a clarification on Wednesday, saying the two Chinese engineers killed in Karachi’s terrorist attack on Sunday night were not involved in independent power producer(IPP) talks with the government.
The statement comes a day after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, in a televised address, said, “These were our brothers, these were those IPP engineers with whom Minister Leghari — Awais Leghari sahab— and I were negotiating with in terms of requesting them to reprofile debt for a bit and extend maturities so we can bring a reduction in tariff.”
Late on Sunday night, a massive explosion occurred on a road near Jinnah International Airport, killing a total of three people, including the two Chinese engineers, and injuring at least 11 others. The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan also confirmed that two of its nationals had died and another was injured, along with “some local casualties”.
Today’s clarification by the Finance Ministry said: “The government has been negotiating with IPPs, including the power plant for which both the Chinese engineers worked. However, the deceased engineers were not involved in the IPP talks.”
It added that “any impression created to this effect by media reports is misleading and has no basis”.
During his talk, Aurangzeb had said that “Chinese IPP had pledged to move forward with us, to create a win-win situation for both China and Pakistan.”
“These are the people who stepped forward to help Pakistan, their senior management also flew from Beijing to move the process forward.”
He also expressed his condolences over the loss of lives and hoped that the dialogue with the Chinese government would continue to move forward.
More to follow.
