Slain Chinese were part of IPP talks, says Aurangzeb

The Chinese nationals who lost their lives in a terrorist attack near the Karachi airport on Sunday night were in talks with senior government ministers regarding the renegotiation of terms for Independent Power Producers (IPPs), a top government minister revealed on Tuesday. The remarks from Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb came as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to make all-out efforts to ensure that Chinese nationals working in the country were “untouchable”. Stressing that a peaceful and secure atmosphere was essential to attract foreign investment, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also pledged not to allow a repeat of 2014, when a PTI sit-in had derailed a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. In his remarks, the finance min­ister said that the slain men were IPP engineers, adding that he and his cabinet colleague Power Minister Awais Leghari had been negotiating with them and requesting them to “re-profile debt and extend the maturities” so Pakistan could reduce power tariffs to bring relief to the people.