The Ministry for Petroleum has told Punjab that Winter Is Coming. They stated that citizens will face up to 7-hours of gas load-shedding this winter.
The shortage of gas has apparently given birth to a grave problem; increased rate of divorce in Pakistan. This was stated by Marriyum Aurangzeb of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA.
Addressing the National Assembly, she elaborated that arguments have been increasing between couples because wives are consistently failing to prepare food on time due to the gas shortage.
“As a result, husbands get irritated, which leads to the couple getting separated,” she stated and then followed up with a straight forward question, “Who exactly is responsible for this mess, which is impacting the future generation of this country?”
She then questioned the government’s Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and demanded that the house be updated on its progress as it can lower the gas shortage significantly.
The debate was joined by parliamentarian Naeema Kishwar of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, who shared similar sentiments over this drama.
This project was once commonly known as “Peace Pipeline” and it’s an approximately 1,900-kilometer long pipeline capable of transferring natural gas from Iran to Pakistan.
The initiative was taken in 2010 and since then it has stalled. The expected completion date is now said to be in 2018. Iran aims to deliver 21.5 mcm/d of gas to Pakistan from Iran.
One of the main reasons for the delay is said to be the lack of overall trade between both countries as of late. The trade total fell to $432 million in 2010-11 from $1.32 billion in 2008-09, according to the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.
The government has also stated that Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI) project will be completed by January 2020.
An auto and football enthusiast, you can contact Syed Zarar at syed.zarar@propakistani.pk. For more discussions, contact him on Facebook (fb.com/TacticallyInept). He tweets at: @TacticallyInept.
