The newspaper said the Pakistani government hasn’t yet been able to find the required funding, has not bought up any land for the project and hasn’t even surveyed the route.
Iran, meanwhile, is almost finished building its part of the route from Assaluyeh on the Persian Gulf coast. But even if the line doesn’t end up at the Pakistani border, the first three-quarters of the length, which Iran says is already completed, will be used to supply communities all across southern Iran.
Jang reported that Pakistani officials have told their Iranian counterparts the pipeline was unlikely to be completed by the scheduled deadline of December 2014.
According to Jang, Pakistan has neither been able to raise the necessary $1.24 billion funding nor plan out the proposed route for the pipeline within its territory.
Iran has completed a 900 km stretch of the 1,150 km long pipeline and told Pakistan it would complete the remaining portion in six months.
But Pakistan has not yet even begun to acquire land on which its 750 km stretch will be laid, Jang said.
Meanwhile, the paper quoted Federal Petroleum Secretary Ejaz Chaudhary as saying a proposal for the funding had been prepared and a report would be received in 14 months. Only then will the funding and other matters be taken up, he said.
Much of the media in Pakistan see a conspiracy and mutter that the United States has intervened to try to kill off the pipeline project. But Chaudhary said that was not true.
