ISLAMABAD, March 17: Pakistan has decided to start the $5 billion pipeline project to import gas from Turkmenistan provided Ashgabad confirms availability of sufficient reserves.
“We have taken our decision. If there is gas we will take it,” said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz referring to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) pipeline project.
The prime minister was addressing a news conference held to announce the launching of the Rs5 billion Khushhal Pakistan Fund (KPF) to start projects in three months to improve the quality of life of the poor.
When asked why had the government had twice missed previous deadlines to take a decision on gas import options, he said Pakistan had been pursuing two options.
A Pakistani negotiating team was in Ashgabad last month to discuss the TAP project, he said, adding that the government had decided to take this project subject to gas availability.
About the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project, the prime minister said Pakistan would pursue this project as well and added that a Pakistani team was returning home after holding negotiations in Tehran on the issue.
Referring to KPF, he said it was designed to pass on benefits of growth to people at tehsil and district levels to improve the standard of life and strengthen rural productivity and income generation.
He said Rs5 billion would be spent under the programme during the remaining three months of the current fiscal year. A country-wide survey at the district and tehsil levels will be conducted by the UK-based Department for International Development to prepare a standard profile of each district.
The government allocated Rs5 billion for KPF in the federal budget 2005-06. The prime minister said that the fund had to be launched much earlier but was delayed due to the Oct 8 quake.
He said a focused approach would be adopted and centre’s intervention would be mainly in areas of water, roads, sanitation, income generation, health and education.
The fund will be managed by a company whose board of directors will be headed by the prime minister. The schemes launched under the programme will be implemented by the district and tehsil governments but the monitoring would remain with the centre.
Mr Aziz said the size of the fund would be enhanced next year and it would be ensured that funds to be released under the programme were not utilised to purchase vehicles and on office renovation.
He said skill training and micro-credit to generate income opportunities would be part of the programme, adding that KPF was an extension of the Khushal Pakistan Programme whose results had been encouraging.
Answering a question, he said utilisation of funds under the Public Sector Development Programme had been improved in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
The prime minister said the government was carrying out maximum exploration and planned to drill at least 100 wells.
