Islamabad/New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) India’s objections to the 3,000 km-long Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC) notwithstanding, Islamabad was firmly committed to the $46 billion project and would not permit any attempt to sabotage it, a key advisor to the prime minister said.

Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs and national security advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday that Pakistan’s “enemies” would not succeed in sabotaging the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC).

India has taken strong exception to the coming up of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC) and, during his visit to Beijing, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up the issue firmly and spoke very strongly about the unacceptability of the economic corridor that envisages going through PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir).

Chinese President Xi Jinping had announced the ambitious 3,000 km-long China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during his visit to Pakistan in April.

Addressing a gathering of the Nazaria Pakistan Council in Lahore — an academy-cum-research centre for promoting the Pakistan ideology, Aziz termed the Indian stance as a conspiracy to sabotage the project saying: “Pakistan’s adversaries have started their conspiracies to sabotage the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, but (let me) make it clear that the enemies’ nefarious designs will never succeed.”

The future of Pakistan — and the entire region — was dependent on the completion of the PCEC, Aziz contended.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi on Sunday said the Indian Prime Minister raised “very strongly” the issue of the China-Pakistan economic corridor during his visit to Beijing and told the Chinese leadership that it was “unacceptable”.

Addressing a press conference, she said the government had summoned the Chinese envoy over the $46 billion economic corridor that is to run through Pakistani Kashmir.

She said the Indian envoy in Beijing had also raised the issue.

“The prime minister during his visit took up the issue very firmly and spoke very strongly that the CPEC going through PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) is unacceptable,” she said.