ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Pakistan and India have agreed to sign the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a global arrangement for security to energy-related trade and investments, as observers to ease import of natural gas through pipelines from Iran, Qatar or Turkmenistan.

The federal cabinet, which will meet on Wednesday, is expected to approve a plan to make a request to the Energy Charter Conference to get the ‘observer status’. The treaty was signed in 1994 and came into force in 1998.

“This would lead to a number of positive developments for Pakistan without any obligation or liability and pave the way for becoming full member to the treaty,” a senior official told Dawn.

Pakistan, the official expressed the hope, would get the observer status in three to four months.

India is also following the same procedure while Iran is already an observer.

The observer status promises access to international information relating to energy trade, investment, transit and environmental issues. It takes about 5-6 years to graduate from an observer status to the full membership status if a country decides so subject to certain international obligations.

Both Pakistan and India agreed early this year to join the ECT because, among other things, it would neutralize the US pressure against import of gas from Iran.

Other sources said that the treaty could exclude Pakistan, Iran and India from having separate inter-governmental, bilateral and multilateral agreements, which otherwise were unavoidable in the proposed pipeline project.

The treaty includes most of Europe, Japan and the former USSR states. The United States has not yet signed it because of some domestic laws like the one that bars companies from doing energy business with Iran. Canada has also not signed the treaty.

The treaty envisages energy market restructuring and provides legal safeguards to investment, transit and trade of energy sources including oil, gas, coal, uranium, electricity and renewable energy.

It covers land transportation, distribution, storage and supply of energy materials and products by way of transmission and distribution grids and pipelines or dedicated rail lines.

It also covers promotion, protection and treatment of investments in case of wars, armed conflicts, state of national emergencies, civil disturbances and similar other events to improve security of energy supplies to nations on a sustainable basis.

More than 50 countries have signed the ECT although some of them have yet to ratify it. Another 17 countries have observer status, including Iran, China, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Republic of Korea and Algeria.

About 10 international organizations are also signatories to the treaty, including ASEAN, OECD, UN, the World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Energy Agency.