The groundbreaking ceremony of Tapi gas pipeline project will be held in December this year, and the president of Turkmenistan has officially invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend the event.Baymurat Hojamuhamedov, Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister for Oil and Gas and Special Envoy of Turkmenistan’s president, called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday and communicated the invitation of the president. Mr Sharif thanked the Turkmen president for the invitation and said Pakistan strongly supports the project and its early completion. He said the Tapi (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) project would meet the energy requirements of the region and benefit all countries of the region. This is really an encouraging development as the project remained victim of unnecessary delays for over two decades. Of course, perilous law and order situation in Afghanistan was one of the main reasons that obstructed meaningful progress towards its implementation but one must acknowledge that lack of commitment and vision on the part of participating countries including Pakistan was also to be blamed. The project has economic significance for all the four countries but it is particularly so in the case of Pakistan, which is facing crippling energy shortages. With this in view, at least project related issues should have been sorted out and necessary groundwork,documentation and agreements could be put in place so that physical work could have begun at the first available opportunity. Anyhow, now that the project is going to be launched on ground, one hopes that all stakeholders would make earnest efforts to ensure its speedy implementation. At the same time, the Government should hold further talks with Iran tofinalize all arrangements for initiation of IP gas pipeline project once sanctions are lifted on Iran.
pk.shafaqna.com
