Make Qatar LNG deal public, demands Asad Umar
Islamabad: (PR) PTI MNA and senior leader Asad Umar today demanded the government immediately make public the terms and conditions of the LNG deal with Qatar. The government’s lack of transparency on the deal raises the spectre of fraud and corruption. Asad Umar reminded that almost a year ago on the LNG deal he had raised the issue of LNG imports terms & conditions and pricing in the National Assembly. He said the answer he got from the petroleum minister was that these are still being negotiated. “Seemed like a strange answer at the time considering the govt had already signed a take or pay contract for the LNG terminal equal to $ 272 thousand a day and yet was saying we have no LNG supplies lined up.”
Asad Umar reminded that “now we are two weeks away from this quarter of a million dollar a day payment starting and the nation is still clueless about the terms & conditions and what pricing LNG will be imported at.” He said it was unacceptable that while this deal was one of the biggest economic transactions in the history of Pakistan, the government keeps the critical details hidden from the nation. This secrecy and refusal to divulge basic facts to the nation shows that something is certainly not right – some hidden commissions/paybacks perhaps. Asad Umar said it was even more shocking to find a PMLN Parliamentary Secretary state that this issue was not an appropriate issue for the National Assembly to discuss. He concluded that the govt should immediately make public the terms and conditions of the deal including the pricing so that the nation is aware of what has been committed to by its leaders.
