As a youthful dream with promising prospects, the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline was first conceived by a young Pakistani civil engineer, Aftab Ahmed. He put forth the idea to connect these two neighbouring countries via an energy transmitting pipeline that he dubbed the ‘Persian Pipeline’ in 1950. The idea was to reinforce the gas resources of Pakistan and to create connections between the two friendly neighbouring states. Rajendra K Pachauri revisited the idea in 1989 and initiated talks with the former Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran, Ali Shams Adrekani. The concept was reshaped and expanded into the ‘Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline’. However, India broke away from the project under the pretext of cost disputes and security threats; the underlying reason being the Indo-US civil nuclear deal of 2008.
