Ice bhai, out of this $46 billion,
$11 billion is being borrowed by Pakistan as a LOAN from China to build the road. Payback time is when it will start to hurt! The rest of the infrastructure is being made by Chinese companies
which would be funded by Chinese banks. The cost you would therefore be paying for electricity would be around Rs18 -20 PKR per unit in contrast to an average of Rs 8 per unit what you're paying now!! After all, the Chinese companies aren't going to give you any freebies as they would need to pay back their borrowings from banks including interest and make profits too!
Coal plants that are planned to be set up for energy are old existing ones that will be transferred to Pakistan as the Chinese have stopped coal fired plants due to climate change issues. So you guys will be saddled with old stuff producing more pollution than energy!!
Have you calculated the cost of transportation along this road? $460 per ton or Rs 46,000 PKR per ton from Pakistan to Xinjiang via Kashgar! That's almost Rs 5 Lakhs PKR per 10-ton truck - more than the cost of what is being transported!! Would your exports to China along this road be viable? Not by a long shot!
Gwadar will be completely controlled by China. Your exports from here, if any, will be heavily taxed as the Chinese companies controlling the port will need to pay back loans to their banks as well as make profits.
More importantly, your provinces have already started fighting for the 'spoils' and putting spokes in the wheel! Like why is Sindh getting six power plants out of 11? The others are already up in arms and have threatened to scuttle the project. Vested interests will be one big speed-breaker to this project.
Employment generation? Most of the workers will be Chinese. Like the 11,000 stationed permanently in GB for infrastructure development. How many Pakistanis are working with the Chinese there? Just a handful!
And then there's the security angle. Protection of the 3000km pipelines and other infrastructure bordering restive provinces especially in Balochistan will be a nightmare, in spite of the one division strength of the PA planned to be deployed for its protection.
Therefore, my friend, it's not all hunky dory as it sounds. And the Chinese, the businessmen that they are, will extract their pound of flesh from the ordinary Pakistani. There are no freebies in this world despite the 'deeper than the oceans' friendship!
And, finally and most importantly, the Chinese are making this 'economic corridor' for their own strategic and national interests. Pakistan is just a side show in this project. The sooner you realise this the better.
End of rant....