PM Imran Khan likely to visit Qatar this month

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to pay a two-day official visit to Qatar later this month to hold talks with the Qatari leadership to explore business, trade and investment opportunities between the two countries.

However, the dates of the visit and agenda of the talks are yet to be finalised.

During the visit, the prime minister will hold talks with Emir of Qatar and also hold meetings with some of the members of the Qatari cabinet. Both sides will formally sign an agreement under which Qatar will provide jobs to 100,000 Pakistani skilled and semi-skilled workers.

A number of agreements and MOUs are also expected to be signed during the visit. The prime minister will also meet top executives of Qatari companies besides addressing Pakistani community in Doha.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/abu-dhabi-crown-prince-accepts-pm-imran-khans-invitation-to-visit-pakistan/

On Friday, the Pakistani government said it was considering renegotiating a 15-year LNG import deal with Qatar, as criticism of the liquefied natural gas import and processing terminals mounts within the PTI government.

According to a report published by the local Pakistani DAWN website, Pakistan’s ruling party criticized contracts by the previous government’s party who imported LNG from Qatar at 13.39 percent of the international crude oil benchmark price. They also had two terminals built by the private sector to re-gasify the imported LNG.

Pakistani Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said at a news conference that: “The price of LNG imported from Qatar is the most expensive.” He said even the prices under proposed gas pipelines from Turkmenistan and Iran were cheaper, according to the newspaper.

The minister also objected to the timeframe of the 15-year deal when the mandate was only for five years, in addition to his objection to a clause putting a bar on non-disclosure of the agreement, even three years after the expiry of the 15-year term.

Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan confirmed that the government of Imran Khan is very much active against the agreement from both aspects, as being expensive and non-disclosure. He pointed out that the issue could land in the International Court of Arbitration (ICA).

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/nab-launches-inquiry-against-shahid-khaqan-abbasi-nawaz-sharif-over-dubious-lng-deal/

The minister further said the Supreme Court, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were looking into the contracts relating to import of LNG from Qatar and two LNG terminals in Karachi and those found responsible for signing the expensive deals would be held accountable.