President Zardari to attend groundbreaking of IP gas pipeline on March 11

President Asif Zardari would be visiting Iran on Monday to attend the groundbreaking of $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. With the materialisation of the project, Pakistan plans to import 21.5 million cubic metres of gas daily from Iran. The project would solve the energy woes of the country to a great extent. The mega ceremony would be held at Gabd Zero Point on the border from where the Pakistan section of the gas pipeline starts and would be attended by the presidents of the two countries besides other world leaders and foreign diplomats posted in Islamabad. According to sources, in a bid to promote national consensus over the project, the chief ministers and governors of the four provinces, including CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif have been invited to the event, which is dubbed as a milestone project in the history of the country. All chief ministers and governors have expressed their consent to join the ceremony with the exception of Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif and has so far chosen to remain silence. Tehran has agreed to provide a $500 million loan to partially finance construction of the pipeline on the Pakistan side, which will cost $1.5 billion. Pakistan will pay the remaining cost from its own resources. If everything else goes well the pipeline will be completed in 15 months. Iran has already completed the pipeline in its territory, while the laying of 785-km-long Pakistani section would commence now.