It is believed that the
Interstate Gas System (ISGS) has funds to lay down the 81-kilometer pipeline to
partially become part of the project. Now it is time Pakistan should come out of US
hegemony and complete this gas pipeline at the earliest.
Iran had asked Pakistan in its second notice to construct a
portion of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project in its territory by March 2024 or
be ready to pay a penalty of US$18 billion.
Tehran had sent a notice to Islamabad in February 2019 to
move an arbitration court for not laying down the pipeline in Pakistan’s
territory in the stipulated period under the IP gas line project. It threatened
to invoke the penalty clause of Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA). The GSPA
was signed in 2009 for 25 years but the project could not take shape.
Pakistan
has been arguing that it could not materialise the project in its territory
because of the US sanctions imposed on Iran, a view which authorities in Tehran
have never subscribed, saying the US sanctions are not justified. Iraq and
Turkey have been using gas from Iran for long as they have managed waivers on
the US sanctions.
It is
on record that India got a waiver for importing petroleum products from.
Pakistan has, meanwhile, tried to contact the US authorities many times to know
whether the US curbs on Iran would have any impact on Pakistan if it becomes a
part of the IP gas line but the country has not received any response from
Washington.
The GSPA (Gas Sales Purchase Agreement) was signed under the
French law and the Paris-based Arbitration Court is the forum to decide
disputes that arise between the two countries. The French arbitration court
does not recognize the US sanctions.
It is believed that the top authorities in Pakistan have
carved out a strategy under which it has been decided to partially implement
the IP gas line project by laying down an 81-kilometer pipeline from Gwadar to
the Iranian border, a point where Iran has already laid down its part of the
pipeline from the gas field. This will help Pakistan avoid the expected penalty
of US$18 billion if Iran moves the Arbitration Court.”
As per the plan, the 81-kilometer pipeline will connect
Gwadar with the IP gas line project and the gas will be used in Gwadar
initially. If the US does not invoke any kind of sanctions, then the pipeline
will be extended from Gwadar to Nawabshah. If Washington imposes sanctions,
then Pakistan will have valid reasons to abandon the project and this is how it
would escape the US$18 billion penalty and arbitration court proceedings. To
this effect, top-level leadership of both the countries is in constant touch at
the ministerial level on a strategy to implement the project and the prime
minister will be briefed by the authorities very soon and a go-ahead for the
strategy will be sought.
The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has also
been sensitized over the latest notice from Iran and the strategy carved out by
the authorities concerned.
According to top sources in SIFC, Pakistan has to show
seriousness by March 2024 towards the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline by laying down
the 80-kilometer pipeline from Gwadar to the Iranian border or it would face
the US$18 billion penalty.
