NEW DELHI — Pakistani armed forces may be given a contract for the security of the 760-km stretch of the Iran-India gas pipeline transiting through Pakistan for an annual fee of $100 million. | Wouldn't that normally be their job? |
The fee would be in addition to the transit fee Islamabad would earn for allowing the $4.16 billion pipeline to pass through its territory. At the meeting of the Task Force on Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline in Teheran on May 2-4, the Iranian side proposed that "the entire security of the pipeline be handed over to the Pakistan armed forces for a fee of $100 million per year," a senior government official said. | Hummm, trying to rent the entire Pak Army, are we? |
Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar is likely to take up the transit issues like route of the pipeline, transit fee and security of the line when he visits Islamabad next month. |