New govt to ink loan accord with China for ML-1

The terms on conditions related to the loan pledged by Beijing for the Pakistan Railways’ flagship project — Main Line-1 (ML-1) — will be finalised by the upcoming government with the Chinese authorities. “Everything, except finalisation of the terms and conditions related to financing/loan by the government, has been completed, as no issue about the project exists at the moment on the part of Pakistan Railways (PR), federal government or the Chinese government,” the PR’s Chief Executive Officer Amir Ali Baloch told Dawn on Saturday. “It will be a government-to-government (G to G) discussion wherein the new government will sign the loan agreement after finalising the financing terms and conditions such as interest rate, repayment period etc,” Mr Baloch responded while responding to a query raised by Dawn.