I I I W Doha announced its intention to spend $3bn in d i ITerent commercial and investment sectors of Pakistan a round a month ago to support this country`s teetering economy, no one expected the government here to immediately implement the actions needed to facilitate the Qatari plans. Yet, it was largely assumed that the work that was started before the prime minister`s Doha visit to remove impediments to the Qatari plan to develop a new RLNG terminal and buy two RLNG-powered generation plants would make rapid progress on fast-tracking the promised investments. However, a report in this paper suggests that bureaucratic red tape and vested interests are stalling any meaningful headway on those reforms. This is in spite of the urgency with which Pakistan needs foreign loans and non-debtcreating investments to tackle its balance-of-payments troubles.

Though Qatar did not give any time frame for its investments, the gas-rich state is expected to spend much of the money on the LNG infrastructure project and the purchase of power plants during the current fiscal to support Islamabad`s efforts to double its foreign exchange reserves to $16bn under the IMF`s bailout programme.

Any other country dealing with a serious economic turmoil amid a balance-of-payments crisis and falling foreign currency reserves would have moved swiftly to push reforms forward and remove the barriers to such a large investment in a sector on which depends the nation`s energy security. The lack of progress on reforms and policy decisions approved by the federal cabinet shows that the gas sector bureaucracy is more concerned about its own interests than those of the country. It goes without saying that the delay in the implementation of reforms required to facilitate long-term foreign investment will not only jeopardise Qatari plans in the gas sector but in other areas as well. Saudi Arabia and the UAE may also rethink their recently announced decisions to invest $1bn each in Pakistan if we continue to drag our feet on important policy reforms meant to ease the way of foreign investors.