Chinese companies should help Pakistan complete the $1.3 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, according Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Saturday.
The government is looking for foreign funds to complete the pipeline project but American opposition is keeping major donors away, said PEW president Dr Murtaza Mughal.
Pakistan should also raise part of the finances through domestic funding for which banks can make a consortium, he suggested.
Americans continue to stick to their stance despite a severe crisis in the country which shows that they are not concerned about our economy but their own geopolitical interests, added Mughal.
He said that US is ignoring the fact that gas contributes around 53 per cent in the country’s energy mix.
Mughal said that fuel shortages have forced the government to ration supplies, resort to gas outages in summer for the first-time and face protests.
The pipeline, which will provide 21.5 million cubic metres of gas per day to Pakistan, has already been delayed by a decade and further delay can prove suicidal for a country that faces a shortfall of around 2.22 billion cubic feet a day, he warned.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.
COMMENTS (10)
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This is exactly the problem in our hateful society today. The attitude is "its my way, or highway". No one, even english literate taxpayers here in the forum, cannot see a comment that is different from their view or goes against popular belief. Immediately you will be coined an agent !! Although we live in a joke democracy, i think i still have the right to differ as a taxpayer, and say that we should not involve a foreign alien country in ALL our national projects, gift wrap our best economic assets, dangerously maneuver against our border neighbors (east/west) on the funding of chinese and act pathetically like stooge colony without self respect. I am sure there will be few who will agree. Doesnt matter what other brainwashed brasstrack members think.
@yummy
everywhere in the world such projects are funded by investors, US has 1.3 trillion dollars (before they raised the ceiling) worth of debt. All these money is from investors which funds various projects going on in the country. Pakistan is no exception, it needs investors to complete the pipeline and if not for USA (opposing a deal with Iran and ignoring Pakistan energy needs) we would have had some other options to fund the project.
Don't mean to offend you! But please try to understand how these things works!
why is express tribune always printing incomplete maps of pakistan. now they have not included occupied kashmir in there map of pakistan,,,,wonder if it is a pakistani or an indin mewspaper??????? editor, plz take notice of this so that it wont happen again,
@PK 1947:
don't think he is an Indian, but a self respecting pakistani, who want to stand on his own feet.
@fahim: If it makes you feel better, there are Indians in Hong Kong selling lot of Chinese goods in Pakistani market. Very similar to Indian goods reaching Pakistan via Dubai and Singapore
The problem with this project is obvious - you want to build an expensive and vulnerable pipeline and place it in the middle of Jihad Central - who wants to risk money on that?
@ Fahim Their are two possibilites of your identity. Either you an indian or an ill inofrmed pakistnai. The article says for financing the project and did not say constructing the pipeline. Your master america is refusing and stopping others to fund. Think of construction of Karakoram Highway, Pakistan Steel Mills. If those were not constructed by chinese and russians i doubt we would have such assets with us by today. I mean capacity at certain point in time.
"chinese SHOULD help", who are we beggars to command masters in beijing? We can only beg and sell our national assets to the clever chinese. Another strategic pipeline with long term national interest is sold to chinese who will send their own workers, own managers, own raw material, own machines, exploit our resources and take the profit back as interest. We have become another chinese colony. There are chinese everywhere in pak today. The chinese would be laughing crazy seeing how we go over line pusihng their agenda. Where are people who wants to talk in equal terms with US and India and then beg doggishly to the chinese? What a shame.