Islamabad bucks U.S., wants Iranian gas

Authorities in Islamabad said Pakistan, despite U.S. reservations, needs to consider a natural gas pipeline from Iran to cope with energy shortages. Pakistan is facing an energy crisis due to a 33 percent decline in natural gas supplies compared with last year. The government last week said it would ration natural gas to cope with the deficit. While a steering committee expressed its continued support for a Western-backed natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, a source told Pakistani news agency The Nation that Islamabad was keen on developing a long-awaited pipeline with Iran. "Construction work on the pipeline in Iranian area was completed. And on remaining portion that was to be constructed in Pakistani area the survey has been completed," the unidentified source was quoted as saying. "Pakistan is bearing losses due to energy crises and it would go ahead with different options including Iran." Washington opposes the Iranian pipeline because of the potential economic benefits for Tehran. Bilateral ties between Washington and Pakistan, meanwhile, are at all time lows because of fall outs from the military conflict in neighboring Afghanistan and the May raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Pakistan gets about 30 percent of its energy needs from imports, mostly from oil.