Tehran is getting restive as the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project stays stalled. Last October, in a letter to Islamabad, Tehran had asked for holding talks on the issues causing delay in the execution of the project. That obviously has not helped. Speaking at a conference on Sunday, Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh warned that his country would initiate legal proceeding against Pakistan for its failure to fulfil its part of the obligations. Considering that Iran has laid out the pipeline on its side of the border, its frustration over the delay is understandable, but it surely is aware that the cause of the holdup is not lack of interest.

In fact, Pakistan badly needs the project to come to fruition for meeting its fast growing energy demands, importing 50 million cubic feet of gas per day, extendable to one billion cubic feet for 25 years. It would also be a vital step towards regional cooperation for development, opening up opportunities for enhanced trade and economic collaboration with an important next-door neighbour. It must not be allowed to drag on and on. Initially, there were genuine problems causing the holdup. The project was to be completed by December 2014, but the nuclear sanctions on Iran stood in the way. Pakistan did not have the required financial resources for the construction of the pipeline on its side, and foreign investors, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), refused to finance it to avoid violating the sanctions. That risk though dissipated with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the consequent lifting of related sanctions. Then other problems came up. The completion deadline was extended to early 2017 as Pakistan sought to amend the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement. The main issue though was, and is, organizing the required funds.

That should not be so difficult considering that China is already committed to building the IP pipeline. Now that CPEC includes several energy projects, it too can be included in them. Russia has also evinced interest in laying an offshore gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan. And the US no longer seems to have any objection to bringing Iranian natural gas to this country. The USAID-Pakistan Mission Director recently told journalists, “we can look at it [Russian plan] any donor investment in infrastructure either from Russia, China, the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, and any investment for the benefit of Pakistani people and economy. … We don’t have any particular views about where the money comes from.” There is no excuse whatsoever for Islamabad to delay the project any further. The obvious two things for it to do are: one, to talk to Iran and explain the reasons for lack of progress; and second, it must act quickly to ask its friends, China and Russia, to come forward and do the needful.