A couple of things clearly stand out about Islamabad’s election year policy. First, its surprise trade and investment outreach, engaging major emerging market players in the broader Asia-Pacific region just when the revenue situation became alarming. Second, its commitment to the Pak-Iran pipeline, despite severe international pressure. And now that Pakistan’s role in getting India and Afghanistan to settle outstanding TAPI issues is becoming clear, so is Islamabad’s emerging commitment to finalising the region’s principal pipeline grid, and getting a handle on the energy problem.
Further, the petroleum minister’s confidence regarding the IP line’s financing clearly shows negotiations with the Russians are progressing smoothly, if they haven’t been settled already, and Gazprom will bring its muscle here sooner rather than later. (The delay on the Pakistani side is known to all, mandating immediate movement). Progress on TAPI, and Kabul and New Delhi’s price agreement, also enables Islamabad to bargain down eventual IP cost, a contractual feature that allows influence from exogenous price movements. Expected $1 billion in saving will no doubt benefit the sector, plagued as it is with debt and corruption.
Appreciated as recent moves are, the advances do seem to occur more on the international side, with our own homegrown problems still lingering. The billion odd in savings matters all the more now because our domestic fiscal situation is so badly compromised, and that too mostly owing to unnecessary factors that are perhaps the easiest to arrest, provided there is a measure of political will.
Extra trade and investment, as well as smoother energy supplies, will bring multiple benefits for years to come. Yet they must be complemented by progress on the domestic front, and matters like needless PSE leakages, and seemingly insurmountable circular debt, must finally come to an end
