ISLAMABAD: An "Indian falsehood" claiming Chinese engineers and workers had given up on repairing the 969 megawatt Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project has been dismissed by Pakistan as unfounded.

In response to a query, spokesperson Asim Iftikhar claimed India is once again fabricating untrue and unfounded reports about the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project during his weekly news briefing on Thursday in Islamabad. He said that a flaw in the project had been found and that the Gezhouba Group of China, the responsible party, had been contacted to begin remedial work.

He said that a flaw was found in the project and that remedial work is currently being done for which the Gezhouba Group of China, the party in question, has been approached.

Iftikhar claimed that the team had already completed full mobilisation at the project site, that construction was now moving forward without any setbacks, and that project completion was anticipated for 2023.
The FO representative claimed that any reports of a work stoppage or purported abandonment were untrue. He said,  these claims are part of harmful propaganda intended to stir up controversies regarding Pakistan-China relations as well as to mislead the general public.

Such attempts would fail because all-weather strategic cooperative partners are completely dedicated to enhancing bilateral collaboration for the benefit of both their respective nations and their citizens, he said.

In response to a question concerning a UN-designated person being in Afghanistan, the spokesman stated that the person was a declared criminal who was sought in multiple terrorism-related cases in Pakistan.

Multiple deadly cross-border terrorist assaults from Afghanistan,  only serve to raise these important worries. In order to uphold their promises to the international community that they will not permit anyone to use Afghan soil against any country, he encouraged the Afghan interim authorities to take coordinated and verifiable efforts, Iftikhar said.

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