Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The future of a potential Chinese investment worth millions of dollars in the field of Livestock and Dairy products in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa looks bleak after the Special Assistant to the Chief Minister recently declined the visiting Chinese investors, according to official sources.

A four-member mission of Chinese representatives of Saint Fulin Group were said to have called on the Special Assistant for Livestock, Muhibullah Khan. However, his denial to sign the previously agreed-upon Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) withheld the deal at the eleventh hour. If signed, the agreement would have enabled the Chinese group to invest millions of dollars in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the field of Livestock and Dairy products development.

St Faulin Group spokesperson, Miss Echo, opined, “The official meeting at the Peshawar Secretariat was expected to go well as we hoped that everything was on course. However, instead of signing the MOU, the government special representative treated us in a very humiliating manner before calling the deal off.”

Interestingly, the group had managed to sign a similar MOU with the Provincial government of Punjab on Wednesday. Federal Minister for Food Security, Sikandar Hayat Bosan, was said to have signed the MOU, which would be implemented in Punjab under the supervision of Punjab Government Livestock department.

According to a source in the livestock department in Peshawar, the deal had largely failed because of vehement opposition of some bureaucrats, which included Deputy Secretary Agriculture, Shaukat Yousfzai; Additional Chief Secretary, Azam Khan and Secretary Agriculture, Jameel Ahmad. “They did not give any reason for canceling the agreement with the Chinese group against the wishes of Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervaiz Khattak,” the source further added

He also believed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, Pervaz Khattak, was, however, interested to avail Chinese investment for the province but the bureaucratic circles kept on declining these investment proposals every now and then.

St Faulin Group Public Relations Officer, Scarlet, noted that the officials had treated the Chinese investors in a highly impolite manner during the meeting. “The attitude of the special Assistant for Livestock was hostile with us, which greatly disappointed us as we wanted to invest in KP,” she maintained.

The group was said to have visited Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as many as three times since 2014 when the provincial government had assured them regarding the agreement. However, it was still rejected without any clear reason, she added. “Our group was interested to invest in the breeding of the different cattle like donkeys, cows etc with modern technologies but unfortunately we have decided not to bring any more projects to KP as here attitude towards foreign investors is very strange,” the official asserted.