PressTV Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has stressed that the Islamabad government is determined to complete the construction of a multi-billion-dollar pipeline project carrying natural gas from Iran to its eastern neighbor.
“Pakistan has signed an agreement with Iran on the gas pipeline in March this year. It was done by the previous government,” Sharif said in a Thursday interview with The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the 68th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He went on to say that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government needs to proceed with the gas pipeline project in order to relieve energy shortages in Pakistan.
“Pakistan needs gas very badly. We have to run our power plants. We need gas for them. There is an acute shortage of gas in Pakistan, so we have to import gas from somewhere,” the Pakistani prime minister stated.
On September 24, Sharif and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stressed the need for the completion of the IP gas pipeline during a meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly.
The Pakistani prime minister said he would be sending Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to Iran in the near future to discuss completion of the project with Iranian energy officials.
The final construction phase of the IP pipeline was inaugurated on March 11. Iran has already built 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its soil and is helping to build the 700-kilometer part of the pipeline on the Pakistani side.
The IP pipeline is designed to help Pakistan to overcome its growing energy needs at a time when the country of over 180 million people is grappling with serious energy shortages.
MP