Cheema orders overseas investment mechanism

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Senator Ahad Cheema has directed authorities to design a structured investment mechanism that would let overseas Pakistanis put money into viable national infrastructure, according to The Express Tribune. The instruction came on Thursday during a high-level review of the Public-Private Partnership pipeline covering railways, highways, power and airports.

Cheema asked officials to explore an investment fund or similar vehicle that would let expatriates join major projects without setting up or running companies locally. He wants the scheme to offer returns that are defined and commercially appealing, with safeguards built in, so that savings from abroad flow into national assets. Muhammad Ali, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Privatisation, backed the idea and said it should be studied for turning into a practical framework.

On the ML-1 railway, the minister said funding should come first from multilateral and development lenders. The Karachi-Rohri section is being taken forward with the Asian Development Bank, while PPP options are kept as a fallback for the remaining sections. He asked the Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) to assess the Lahore-Rawalpindi stretch under a possible PPP model, given its potential to reduce journey times between the two cities. Approval from the Prime Minister's Office for the Kharian-Rawalpindi Motorway was acknowledged, and authorities were told to press ahead with technical work and seek tangible progress within three months.