The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat has summoned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) to brief the panel on objections reportedly raised by the US on the multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project.
Tehran has been claiming to have completed its side of the 1,150-kilometre pipeline for which a groundbreaking ceremony was jointly conducted by then presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Iranian site of Gabd, near Chahbahar in March 2013 with an estimated cost of $7.5bn at the time.
Pakistan had committed to complete its side of the project by January 2015. However, in February 2014 then petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the parliament that the Iran-Pakistan project was “off the table” due to international sanctions.
Earlier this year, former petroleum minister Musadik Malik explained that despite being fully committed to its contractual obligations under the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA), the Government of Pakistan had been unable to start construction of the pipeline due to US sanctions on Iran.
