DUBAI: Iran will probably abandon a multi-billion-dollar contract to supply gas to Pakistan, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Iran’s oil minister as saying yesterday. “The contract for supplying gas to Pakistan is likely to be annulled,” Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on the sidelines of a gas forum in Tehran. He gave no details. Under the contract, Iran is supposed to export 21.5 million cubic meters of gas per day to Pakistan from next year. Dubbed as the “peace pipeline”, the $7.5bn project has faced delays since it was conceived in the 1990s to connect Iran’s South Pars gas field to Pakistan and India. Iran has spent hundreds of millions of dollars and nearly completed the 900km pipeline to the Pakistan border. Pakistan, although suffering severe gas shortages, has made little progress on its part of the line due to a lack of funds and warnings it could be in violation of US sanctions on Iran.
Two soldiers die in blast
ISLAMABAD: A bomb explosion yesterday killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded four in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said. The explosion took place in a village in the South Waziristan tribal region. “Two soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and four were injured when an improvised explosive device planted by terrorists exploded on roadside in (a) village,” a security official said. Homemade bombs are a major weapon for militants who attack government forces in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the tribal districts bordering Afghanistan.
Bomb kills five in Quetta
QUETTA: A bomb exploded yesterday in a crowded car repair market in restive southwest Pakistan, killing five people and wounding 17, officials said. The blast happened near a main road in Quetta city, the capital of insurgency-hit Baluchistan province. “Apparently, the bomb was planted in a bicycle parked in the market,” Azhar Shah, a senior police official, said. “We have received five bodies and 17 injured people from the site,” Rasheed Jamali, a doctor at Quetta’s civil hospital, said.
91 arrested in Peshawar
Islamabad: Pakistani Police on Tuesday arrested at least 91 suspects during search operations in Peshawar. Officials said police during their crackdown conducted house-to-house search in Bhana Mandi area and raided criminals’ dens in different parts of Peshawar neighboring tribal agencies. Police arrested 91 suspects and also confiscated Kalashnikovs, repeaters, G3 rifles, pistols and hundreds of bullets were recovered from them.
Tax campaign losing steam
ISLAMABAD: The federal government’s campaign to broaden the tax base is fast losing steam despite parliamentary backing for steps to access bank account details of tax evaders. Several major initiatives against tax evaders have hit a wall of resistance in the absence of regulations. A senior Federal Board of Revenue official revealed that the government’s revenue collection department had been unable to frame the rules necessary to seek information from banks about the bank account holders. Agencies
