President, FCCI, Engineer Rizwan Ashraf, has stressed upon the government for early completion of Pak-Iran gas project so that Pakistan could get 750MMCF gas positively before the coming winter season when the entire indigenous gas will be diverted to the domestic users at the cost of productive industrial sector.
Talking to newsmen, he said that the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran by 6 Big Powers after imposing ban on enrichment of nuclear material, Iran would now play a major role in development of the Asian countries including Pakistan. He said that Pak-Iran agreement was inked in 1995 and later India was included in it on the request of Iran. He said that many tripartite meetings were held to decide the gas tariff. However, India abandoned it after it signed a nuclear deal with America in 2008. America also pressurized Pakistan to disassociate itself from the gas supply agreement but Pakistan continued it. In 2010, Pakistan and Iran had a meeting in Ankara to finalize the deal and it was decided that both countries would complete gas pipeline within their boundaries up to 2014. Iran completed its portion in 2011 but Pakistan could not make progress due to economic sanctions clamped on Iran by the international community and hence the project is still lying unfinished.
FCCI President further said that now Pakistan has to take bold decisions to complete the work to lay gas pipeline inside Pakistan on fast track basis as international community has lifted economic sanctions on Iran. This pipeline will help Pakistan to inject 750MMCF gas in its domestic gas distribution network. However, President FCCI disagreed with the statement of Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that it will take two years to complete it. He said that maximum available resources should be allocated for this project as immediate availability of gas will help Pakistan to increase its production and achieve the fixed growth rates. He said that Pakistan has to lay only 700 kilometres line within its boundaries to get 750MMCF gas and the availability of this gas will help our industrial sector which was forced to utilize only 33 percent of gas quota even during the hottest summer season.