Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar on Thursday said that Chinese investment in Pakistan was growing and along with it, the need for security measures for the investors.

       The planning minister was addressing a press conference in Islamabad after a meeting of the 10th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The JCC was due to meet in July but the meeting was postponed after the Dasu incident in which a number of Chinese nationals were killed.

       Umar said that during the JCC meeting, both the Chinese and Pakistani sides, had "specially mentioned and emphasised" on the issue of security. "Need and importance of security is increasing as Chinese investment is rising in Pakistan," he said, adding that the CPEC's scope was widening and industrial investments were coming in.

       The federal minister said that both sides expressed their grief over the Dasu incident and sympathy with the victims' families and also affirmed the intent to capture the culprits responsible as soon as possible and get them punished in court.

       Umar said a very "strong" plan of action had been devised last month to further enhance security measures, explaining that a special cell was set up in the interior ministry for this purpose. "This cell is not exclusively China-specific but [for the security of all] foreigners working in Pakistan," he added.

       The planning minister said CPEC was a target of some forces in the world "particularly our eastern neighbour whom it stings and there is no doubt about this".

       He added that this targeting was not limited to physical attacks but "this is the age of fifth-generation hybrid warfare [including] fake news on social media and international outlets".

       Despite that, Umar said, Pakistan and China's top political leadership, all the way down to the nation, were "committed" to the friendship between the two countries.

       He had said earlier on Twitter that Thursday's JCC meeting would "lay the foundation for further acceleration and broadening of CPEC".

       The planning minister had expressed the same sentiments about potential threats to CPEC in his JCC address earlier in the day, saying that many countries in the world were "unhappy and nervous" with its successful development.

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       More to follow.