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Maryam Nawaz said the Chinese nationals don’t want to come under any discipline. (File)

Lahore:

Maryam Nawaz, the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, on Friday said that Chinese nationals living in Pakistan get “resentful” when they are asked to follow security protocols. Her remarks came a week after five Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Maryam, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who became the first-ever woman chief minister of a province in Pakistan, while addressing her maiden Apex Committee meeting here said “the Chinese living here do not want to follow security discipline”.

“They are resentful when they are asked to follow security protocols. They don’t want to come under any discipline as they fret over it,” she added.

The meeting was also attended by Corps Commander Lahore Lt Gen Syed Aamer Raza and other senior military officers.

Maryam, however, expressed her government’s resolve to provide fool-proof security to the Chinese nationals working on development projects in the Punjab province. The meeting also condemned the killing of Chinese engineers in Bisham.

Five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed in a suicide bombing last week while travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bus was attacked in Bisham city of Shangla district.

Maryam said terrorism has taken the shape of difficult warfare. “Terrorists got digitalised and we need to be ahead of them on such platforms. Besides, terrorists have the latest weapons and technology. They have the US weapons which they got in Afghanistan. The weapons coming from Afghanistan are a big challenge for the law enforcement agencies,” she said.

The 50-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party leader added that the youth are also being brainwashed and recruited by terrorists. “And social media is one of the major tools being used for the purpose,” Maryam said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed all the security agencies to ensure fool-proof security arrangements for the Chinese nationals working on various projects in the country.

According to a statement, the prime minister said he had decided to “personally review the meetings with respect to the overall security of the country, especially the security of the Chinese citizens”.

Sharif said the war against the menace of terrorism will continue till its complete eradication from the country.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)