Well played
Not many people are complaining about the LNG deal now, especially about the pricing. In settling the final price of the mega deal the government managed 13.37 percent of Brent crude, which means it played this hand well, even though seemingly it didn’t mind playing with the opposition all this while over the numbers. All said and done, this is an appreciated step forward. Hopefully misadventures like the scandal about importing LNG at exorbitant prices, hurting the end user while key middle men make killings, will no t be repeated.
The government must now build on this momentum and exploit other possible avenues of gas as well. Now that Iran is back in the market, efforts must be made to revitalise the Iran-Pakistan pipeline. Surely Tehran would still be just as interested; not the least because they built their part of the pipeline on time even though we didn’t begin work on ours. And there is already enough high-stake international interest in TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) to make sure it will, sooner or later, reach the finish line. Yet Pakistan can breathe fresh life into the process, which would benefit all countries concerned.
These exercises provide more than just a source of much-needed energy for us. This way we are also able to make important linkages at a crucial phase of our history. Partnerships like CPEC, TAPI, etc, also provide a framework that can improve trade dynamics across regions. Already there is reason to hope for a more than gas from Qatar. Doha has expressed interest in our trademark JF Thunder aircraft, among other things. The Sharif government has scored valuable points with the LNG deal. It must now ensure that complacency is not allowed to set in and more efforts are made to overcome the energy deficit.