Pakistan: Work on delayed gas pipeline to start this year

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister said Friday that Turkmenistan will begin construction on a much-delayed gas pipeline stretching from Central Asia to South Asia by the end of the year, a project that once completed is expected to help his energy-starved Islamic nation overcome the shortage of natural gas in the years to come.

Nawaz Sharif told a meeting of business leaders in Islamabad that he would travel to Turkmenistan in December for the project’s ground-breaking ceremony, which is also to be attended by other South Asian leaders as. The pipeline is to be built in four years, he added.