Pakistan: TAPI pipedream

EDITORIAL:Daily Times

President Asif Ali Zardari, while on a visit to Turkmenistan to attend the Nauroz Festival, has stressed the coming together of the Central Asian countries to take advantage of the natural resources the region is blessed with in abundance. The president was clearly pointing at the massive energy resources of Central Asia. Referring to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, the president attached great importance to the immediate implementation of the venture. The $ 7.6 billion project would not only help energy-starved Pakistan but also satiate the ever-growing future energy needs of all partner countries. The TAPI project, initiated in 1995 and agreed upon by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, was thrown in deep freeze with the overthrow of the Taliban government after 9/11. The project was reinitiated in 2010, but a pipeline traversing the Afghanistan war zone made the project daunting, especially since it would require 5-7,000 security personnel to safeguard the pipeline route. Now that President Zardari has revived the demand for completing the project as soon as possible, the risk remains, given the warlike situation in the two most important transit countries of TAPI, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Post-2014 Afghanistan is speculated to be facing a possible intense civil war after the withdrawal of the US-led NATO forces from Afghanistan. Pakistan also being in a precarious situation in terms of terrorism, given its so far weak counterterrorism capabilities, the proposed pipeline has little chance to move beyond the imagination. It is interesting that President Zardari is looking for external energy resources to meet domestic power needs, and has taken a giant leap in this context by pushing the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. However the paradox that emerges from this international energy bargain is the possibility of Pakistan having to face US and UN sanctions in the context of dealings with Iran. According to the recent report issued by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, as the entire power structure of the country is again put under the umbrella of WAPDA to keep it from collapsing entirely because of worn out infrastructure, it is facing losses to the tune of Rs 500 billion per annum. Without putting one’s own house in order, seeking international sources of energy is not a risk-free enterprise and in no way absolves us of putting our own energy house in order. Only then can we persuade the world of the efficacy of Pakistan emerging as the preferred energy (and trade) corridor for the region, a natural advantage geography has bestowed on us.