October 17, 2003	Friday	Sha'aban 20, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali would be paying an official visit to Iran from Oct 22 to discuss matters of bilateral interest, particularly cooperation in the oil and gas sector, a senior government official told Dawn.

During his visit, the two sides would discuss the proposed $3bn Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. Pakistan has already provided all sorts of security guarantees for the project.

The official said Islamabad would also ask Iran to identify the sources of oil smuggling from Iran to Pakistan. The issue was also discussed here on Thursday with Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan Muhammad Ebrahim Taherian by petroleum minister Chaudhry Nauraiz Shakoor Khan.

The official said the envoy was told that Pakistan was losing Rs7 billion in annual revenue due to oil smuggling into Pakistan, and that Tehran should take steps to curb this menace at source because it was hurting Iran as well.

The issue would be taken up during the prime minister’s visit the official said. The feasibility study on Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline was not complete as yet but discussions with the Russian firm Gazprom for the project were in progress.