The Petroleum Ministry has requested to the Prime Minister that a senior official from the ministry should be appointed commercial counsellor in Tehran to look after energy related issues with the neighbouring Iran. An official source said that the request had been made by the ministry considering the issues arising on the under implementation Iran Pakistan gas pipeline which both the countries initially planned to complete before December 2014 which now Pakistan wants to complete before December 2012.
If approved by the Prime Minister then the Additional Secretary Petroleum Naeem Malik is most likely to be nominated for appointment as commercial counsellor in Tehran. Malik a competent officer has served as DG Petroleum concessions and until recently was MD OGDCL. The source said that many issues were arising on the under construction pipeline that required urgent response from Pakistan. He said that the usual diplomatic channel was consuming more time as now Pakistan has decided to speed up the project as it was also behind schedule.
