The much-anticipated Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project extends back to as early as 1994 when discussions between the governments of both countries started. The project was so well thought out and so promising that even India got on board in 1999, even though it backed out in 2009 after signing a civil nuclear deal with Washington. Iran has completed work on the pipeline on its side up to the border and has been waiting, patiently, for Pakistan to do the same, offering monetary assistance and even construction aid for completing the pipeline on the Pakistan side. However, it is sad to see that the Iranian oil minister has said that the deal has, most likely, been annulled. All those familiar with the devastating situation concerning shortage of gas in Pakistan will know that this is not just a setback but a travesty. The Pakistani people are in the throes of a gas shortage, one that will see them without a constant supply of gas to fuel the winter months, just like the past few years. Under this deal the nation was set to receive as much as 21.5 million cubic metres of gas per day, starting from 2014. Now all that hope and hard work seems to have been thrown away, and one cannot blame Iran for this criminal abandonment. Iran has lived up to its end of the bargain and has even offered support but Pakistan seems to have chosen politics over the economy and the needs of the masses.
The $ 7.5 billion dollar project has faced many delays from Pakistan’s side and now the Iranians have had enough, particularly after Pakistan Oil Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi publicly announced that Pakistan risked US sanctions if it went ahead with the pipeline. One must pause and ask the Pakistan government just what it thinks it is doing. The threat of sanctions has existed since the inception of the project so why have we suddenly woken up to them now? Why did we let the Iranians spend money and manpower on a project we would so recklessly quit? No wonder they are angry. The previous tenure of the PPP government saw them trying to reach a conclusion concerning the price of gas according to the international market. Right after the PML-N government took over in May 2013, Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting concerning the energy policy and Abbasi hinted at its foot dragging by saying that prices needed to still be negotiated. Now it has backed out of the deal almost completely. We are all aware of the fact that the US does not favour Iran and, along with the superpower, Saudi Arabia and other Arab monarchies consider Iran an enemy. It is open knowledge that the leadership of the PML-N is very close to the family of Saud and would never like to offend it, even more so than the US, particularly when the Arab monarchies are wary of any level of normalization emerging between the US and Iran. This sad conclusion to the gas pipeline project, at the expense of the needs of the people, may just be a way to keep our Arab ‘benefactors’ happy. Who are we to object? *