Future of Iran-Pakistan pipeline

Pakistan’s need for gas dire but sanctions loom

Washington’s opposition to the Iran gas pipeline is no secret. The US strategic interests in the Middle East require increasing economic and political pressure on Tehran. Iran’s nuclear programme has provided Washington a handle to isolate it in the international community and subject it to sanctions. Left to itself Israel would even launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. Iran’s Shia regime is seen to be a threat by many Gulf states – some of which have substantial Shia populations. The fears and suspicions have led these countries to also toe the US line.

Pakistan’s case is simple. It is suffering for the last many years from acute shortage of power which has hit the domestic consumers as well as trade and industry hard. The US supports Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline (TAPI). The biggest roadblock in the way of TAPI’s construction is that it has to pass through insurgency ridden Afghanistan where peace could take years to come. As things stand, the TAPI is no more than a pipedream. The Iran gas pipeline on the other hand is a realistic option. The gas comes from neigbouring Iran where the pipeline has been constructed up to the border with Pakistan. In July this year federak secretary petroleum told Radio Pakistan that the work on Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline Project would be completed by the end of 2014. Despite its tilt towards the US, the previous government had gone ahead with the agreement with Iran. In March the groundbreaking ceremony of the gas pipeline was performed. A firm from Iran won the contract to build the Pakistan portion of the pipeline. As the PML-N government took over, it seemed that the new dispensation too was committed to the project. Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, had told the media that the work on the pipeline would continue “because such a vital project cannot be set aside in hard times like the present”. The country, he said, needed to get the commodity irrespective of from “wherever it comes, whether from Iran or the Arabian Sea”. The Annual Plan 2013-14 promised to implement the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, targeting the first flow of gas in December 2014.

Talking to newspaper reporters in Jeddah, Mian Nawaz Sharif has revealed that the US had warned that the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project could invoke sanctions. It is now for the government to weigh the risks and the benefits of the project. Among the major problems it faces is that of power shortages. The TAPI is neither here nor there. Reverting to coal for power production would take years. The gas from Iran could be put to use in less than a year and half. There is a need on the part of the government to persuade all countries who are opposed to the Iran gas pipeline, for one or the other reason, of the dire need on the part of Pakistan to seek gas from Iran.