It's actually 1.6% interest as per wikki but payback schedule is 20 years. Now how much has Pakistan borrowed from China? Out of the $46 billion, $11 billion has been loaned by China to Pakistan for the proposed infrastructure projects along the CPEC that will be dispersed to Pakistan by the Exim Bank of China, China Development Bank, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Now that means approx $600 million per year or > Rs 6000 crores PKR per year. That's a lot of dosh to pay back to China every year!
And think about the 11 coal fired plants they're transferring to Pakistan as part of the CPEC. The irony is that the Chinese are discarding these polluting power plants for renewable energy like nuclear and solar power plants but shoving the antiquated polluting coal fired plants down the throats of the Pakistanis!
And China not only wants better than market returns for the money being invested in the proposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but also wants Islamabad to select only Chinese firms for all CPEC-related contracts.
For instance, business rivals of China are being quoted, as saying that Beijing is putting pressure on Pakistan to make sure that work related to the Gwadar Port Development Project is given only to a Chinese company selected by Beijing. They've managed now to take it over on a 40 year lease. Do Pakistanis need permits to enter the port as it is controlled by the Chinese? I haven't the faintest clue but it would be ironical that Pakistanis would need permission to enter their own port!!
Officials in Pakistan have reportedly railed against such interference, but the missive from China appears to be clear, no Chinese company means no project, and therefore, no money. So what happens to jobs for Pakistanis with some commentators saying that thousands of unemployed Pakistanis would be given jobs? 10,000 Pak troops have already been deployed for the protection of this Chinese workforce!
I wonder whatever happened to their higher than the mountains and deeper than the oceans friendship? Where it comes to business, no one can beat the Chinese at their game. In a nutshell, the Pakistanis are being taken for a jolly good ride!