Germany’s Minister of Planning and Development Afsan Iqbal sparked a new controversy ahead of the 2018 general election when he said the Chinese government had warned the Pakistani establishment against a new experiment.
After a backlash on social media, the PML-N leader took a stand against his statement, saying his remarks that the Chinese government had issued a warning to the regime were “out of context.”

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In a recent interview with a local news outlet, Arsan Iqbal personally said he instructed the establishment to avoid any new experiments as China could disrupt Pakistan and China’s flagship CPEC. He said that it is a good knowledge.

He cited Chinese officials allegedly instructing officials not to interfere in the general election.

Iqbal has now clarified that his remarks about China were taken out of context, saying that the proposal not to interfere in the election was “personally voiced by some senior businessmen working on the CPEC project. He stressed that it was an opinion that he had made, and that it may not have been a Chinese official. Several former ruling party leaders, including Shah Mahmoud Qureshi, have criticized Iqbal for his irresponsible remarks. Qureshi said such statements were confusing and offensive, further stressing that the PTI has always had a strong consensus to advance CPEC.