Kabul, Nov 9 — Energy arithmetic has exposed how ordinary Pakistanis are paying for the government's policy failure. Recently, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Petroleum, Ali Pervaiz Malik, in his address at the National Assembly cited closure of Pakistan-Iran border as one of the main reasons for the increasing price of Liquified Natural Gas (LPG) and that the government is making efforts to bring fuel through sea, a report has detailed.
At the time, Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir had travelled to Iran for the second time in a single week. Munir's visit in Pakistan were presented as proof that ties with Iran were sound and the Gabd-Rimdan crossing partially reopened four days after the first visit. Later, Pakistan's military spokesperson asked why Munir would travel to Iran twice "if it is not for same positivity," according to a report in Afghanistan-based news agency Khaama Press.
The two claims cannot hold at once and the gap between them shows where Pakistan's West Asia policy lies now. Since the ceasefire between the US and Iran in April, Pakistan has been spending most of its time presenting itself as the indispensable mediator between the two sides. In return, Pakistan has been facing gas crisis, an unanswered request for the US money, a defence partner, Saudi Arabia, for which it has publicly refused to fight for and an Iranian leadership that no longer conceals its skepticism.
"The energy arithmetic explains why ordinary Pakistanis are paying for this policy failure. The minister told the house that 50 to 60 per cent of Pakistan’s imported LPG came from Iran and the rest from Qatar, and that Qatari supply has been suspended because of the war," Ankit Kumar wrote in an opinion piece for Khaama Press.
"Pakistan produces only about a quarter of the LPG it consumes. The regulator’s notified price is about PKR 280 per kilogramme, yet lawmaker Aliya Kamran told the house the fuel was selling for PKR 700 to 800 in remote and northern areas. Traders said a 12-kilogramme cylinder jumped from PKR 4,500 to PKR 7,000 within days of the closure," the author added.
During the same session, Pakistani lawmaker Naeema Kishwar Khan asked why the government had stopped trade operations with Iran through the border. The question is valid as ministers blame the same closure for the price hike impacting households without piped gas. On October 17, Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce suspended traffic at the Gabd-Rimdan and Taftan crossings, citing security and anti-smuggling concerns. After Gabd-Rimdan reopened on October 24, only consignments documented before the closure were allowed through, and the partial reopening had failed to ease the shortage, Khaama Press reported, citing an editorial in Dawn.
Munir did not travel to Iran to reopen the border and his meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on October 20 resulted in a public instruction instead of a negotiation. During the meeting, Pezeshkian told Munir that US must lift threats and sanctions before any negotiations, Khaama Press reported, citing Iranian state media.
During his second visit to Iran on October 26, Munir met Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin. It was the first high-level meeting between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, who are the signatories of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, under which an attack on one is considered an attack on all. According to Iranian officials, the meeting was proposed by Munir during his first visit.
The regional sources cited by The National revealed that Saudi Arabia and its partners asked Iran to restrain the Houthis while Iranian representatives stressed that Tehran did not have the leverage to force them. No statement announcing agreement to stop the attacks was released following the meeting.
"Munir is steadily running out of rooms to enter. Tehran has told him publicly that the terms are for Washington to meet. Riyadh has been told that the pact does not extend to the war it is fighting against the Houthis," Ankit Kumar mentioned in a report in Khaama Press.
"The Americans have not paid. And as the midterm vote arrived, the most serious channel between Washington and Tehran ran through Doha, where Iranian negotiators worked on a framework with Qatari mediators, not through Islamabad. The mediation was always a financing strategy for Pakistan rather than a diplomatic conviction, and it has failed on its own terms," the author added.