September 04, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 21, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called for equal opportunities for all countries for the transfer of civil nuclear energy and expressed Pakistan’s determination to meet its energy requirements from all available resources, including nuclear energy.

Speaking at an International Conference on “Energy Sources of Regional Cooperation and Competition” here, he said installation of more nuclear reactors was under way in the country.

The international conference has been organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany. The prime minister said every country had the right to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under appropriate safeguards.

He said there was need for all countries to have access to nuclear technology without any discrimination.

He said in Pakistan the energy requirement was increasing by 8 to 12 per cent a year. However, Pakistan was meeting 75 per cent of its energy requirements from domestic resources.

Mr Aziz said: “We need to expand and diversify in the next 25 years our energy needs and Pakistan has hydel, gas, coal resources and is pursuing nuclear energy to maximise utilisation of indigenous resources’’.

He said Pakistan was at the crossroads of the Middle East and Central Asia and was an energy corridor for all. He said the energy policy incorporated three basic elements -- increase in energy resources, stable and uninterrupted supply and appropriate environmental procedures.

He said Pakistan would set up a big refinery project with the help of the United Arab Emirates in the coastal areas while an LNG terminal was being built in Karachi.