BEIJING: I first came to China in April 2016 with officials of the government of Balochistan, Pakistan on the invitation of the China Foundation for Peace and Development on behalf of my father. My family was among the initial people to warmly welcome the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and, in 2015, donated the land for a school in Gwadar. Gwadar is considered the heart of the CPEC, which is one of the most important corridors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. CPEC is a regional connectivity framework that will benefit both China and Pakistan and positively impact Iran, Afghanistan, the Central Asian republics and the region. Officially, CPEC began in April 2015, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan. CPEC is connecting Gwadar, a southwestern port city in Pakistan, to Kashgar, China, by land routes.
Following the inception of CPEC, the CFPD decided to build a school in Gwadar. The foundation chose to locate the school in a less-developed area in dire need of school services. Eventually, our town qualified as the best location, and the foundation requested land from the local community. My father welcomed the Chinese to build the school and donated valuable land to commence its construction. That was my first time to have direct interaction with Chinese people, and we made friends. After a few months, my father was invited to visit China, but he nominated me to go on his behalf. I also studied Chinese language and culture for nine months at the Henan University of Technology. In the same period, I represented the Pak-China School Gwadar at the first Belt and Road Initiative summit held in Beijing in May 2017.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
