On his last day in office, Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Musadik Malik, held a news conference to address the confusion caused by his ministry’s misinformation regarding the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. He blamed the bureaucracy within his ministry for misrepresenting the situation in a casual policy statement given on his behalf in parliament.
Dr Malik clarified that the force majeure notice, which had been mistakenly portrayed as recent, was actually issued 8-10 years ago. The statement was made in response to a question regarding the current status of the project. He explained that Iran did not accept the notice, and through constructive bilateral engagement, Pakistan was given two extensions of five years each for the completion of the project, with one of the extensions still ongoing.
The outgoing minister emphasized that Pakistan is actively engaged with Iran to find a creative solution for completing the pipeline. Pakistan is in desperate need of gas and wants to complete the project transparently and at a viable price, while avoiding international sanctions.
Dr Malik criticized the bureaucracy for not providing the date and time of the force majeure notice in their response to the parliamentarians. This omission created the false impression that Pakistan had recently requested Iran to shelve the project. He also highlighted that other countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iraq have waivers against sanctions due to their previous oil trade with Iran, whereas Pakistan does not have similar support.
The previous statement to the National Assembly had stated that the pipeline was stalled due to international sanctions on Iran. It mentioned that Pakistan had issued a force majeure and Excusing Event notice to Iran, suspending Pakistan’s obligations under the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA). However, Iran disputed the validity of the force majeure.