ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordi­nation Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Thursday decided to pay $2.58 million to the families of Chinese workers slain in the Shangla attack in March this year and also approved about Rs88 billion in other supplementary grants to various ministries.

The meeting of the ECC, presided over by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, approved $2.58 million compensation package for the families of five Chinese workers of the Dasu Hydropower Project and Rs2.5 million to a local national (driver) killed in a terrorist attack near Shangla.

The approval of compensation for five Chinese workers of China Gezhouba Group (contractor) was approved at the rate of $516,000 per head, as a goodwill gesture. This is on the pattern of $11.6 million previous such payments to Chinese workers (10 killed and 26 injured) in 2021 working on the same project and to two Chinese workers of Gomal Zam Dam, killed in 2004.

The compensation announcement came a day before the 13th joint cooperation committee meeting of the CPEC and ahead of the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Beijing early next month to push for the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that has been going through a rough patch for almost five years.

The supplementary grant would be arranged by the finance ministry itself as the Ministry of Water Resources did not have such funds in the budget.

“The amount would be transferred immediately to the account of the Pakistani embassy in Beijing for onward payments to the families of the deceased Chinese nationals through appropriate channels,” a top finance ministry official said.