Major delays – ML‑1, Gwadar coal plant, Karachi Circular Railway, Kohala and Azad Pattan hydros, New Gwadar Airport (two‑year slip).
Scrapped outright – Gadani 6,600 MW power park; Rahim Yar Khan and Muzaffargarh coal plants; Matiari–Faisalabad HVDC; Gwadar–Nawabshah gas pipeline; Diamer‑Bhasha Dam under CPEC banner.
Employment score‑card
- Promised (2015): 700,000 direct jobs by 2030, plus 300,000 indirect.
- Claimed (2023): 192,000 total.
- Verified? Government offers no audit; many posts were temporary labour. Skill transfer looks modest: about 2,000 engineers trained, 7,000 scholarships—useful, yet a drop in a 70‑million‑strong workforce.
Conclusion: Far from eradicating unemployment, CPEC risks entrenching Pakistan’s dependence on imported expertise and imported fuel.
## EDITORIAL SIGN‑OFF
After a decade, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor remains a study in paradox: glittering motorways with scant traffic, megawatt‑heavy power plants feeding a cash‑strapped grid, and a desert port waiting for cargo that never comes. Islamabad’s leaders once sold CPEC as a Marshall Plan; today it looks more like a mortgage—serviceable only if the economy somehow outruns the debt. Whether Phase 3 will revitalise the dream or deepen the dilemma hinges less on fresh Chinese cheques and more on Pakistan’s own capacity for transparent governance, prudent planning and honest cost–benefit scrutiny.