Welcoming the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the People’s Party has urged the government to expedite work on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.
“The government should translate the dream of the project initiated by the PPP government into reality,” PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement. “The nuclear deal opens the doors for the project which can help resolve the lingering and crippling energy crisis in Pakistan.”
The PPP chief said the deal signed in Vienna on Tuesday between Tehran and P5+1 group of countries over Iran’s nuclear programme was an important development that “holds the potential of becoming a game changer in the region”.
“The agreement is a triumph of diplomacy and negotiations over coercion and hostility,” he said.
The $1.25 billion project was conceived in early 90s under which gas is to be piped from Iran’s South Pars gas field to Pakistan-Iran border near Gwadar. The two countries are to build the pipeline in their territories.
The pipeline will start from the Iranian onshore gas processing facility in Assaluyeh and cover a distance of 1,150km to reach the border.
Iran has completed 900km portion of the 56-inch diameter pipeline from Assaluyeh to Iran Shehr. The remaining part is being designed and expected to be built in two years.
The Pakistani portion of the pipeline is to be laid close to the Makran costal highway in Balochistan. It will cover a distance of over 781km to reach the off-take point in Nawabshah.
The PPP leader said that an Iran cooperating with the world had raised the prospects and hopes for peace, stability and development in the region.
The test now was for all sides to uphold their commitments in letter and spirit, he said and expressed the hope that they would do so.
“A great lesson of the deal is that given perseverance, patience and commitment, nations can overcome decades of hostility and move to building structures of peace,” the former president said.
Dialogue and negotiations, not hostility and animosity, were also the way forward for peace, stability and development in South Asia, he added.
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