Research · Reference

Policy glossary

The laws, agreements, institutions and places that come up again and again in relations between the United States and Pakistan, each explained in a short, neutral, sourced entry.

65 entries, A to Z

6 of 65 terms in Energy & resources. Show all

C

CASA-1000

energy & resources. Also Central Asia–South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project. A World Bank-backed project, approved in 2014, to build transmission lines and converter stations that would carry up to 1,300 megawatts of surplus summer hydropower from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan, with a converter station at Peshawar. The four countries oversee it through an intergovernmental council. Financing also comes from the Islamic Development Bank, the EBRD and the European Investment Bank, among others.

circular debt

energy & resources. In Pakistan’s power sector, the build-up of unpaid bills along the electricity supply chain. Distribution companies, short of revenue because of losses, low bill collection and delayed government subsidies, cannot fully pay the Central Power Purchasing Agency, which in turn delays payments to power producers, who then owe fuel suppliers. Limiting its growth is a recurring commitment in Pakistan’s IMF programmes.

I

Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline

energy & resources. Also Peace Pipeline, IP gas pipeline. A planned pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, agreed by the two governments in 2009–10. Construction of Pakistan’s section stalled, with Islamabad citing US sanctions on Iran. US officials said in 2013 and again in 2024 that the United States did not support the project and that it risked triggering sanctions. Pakistan has since sought to settle with Iran over ending the project.

R

Reko Diq

energy & resources. A large copper and gold deposit in Chagai District, Balochistan, among the biggest undeveloped deposits of its kind. After a dispute over its licensing halted the project in 2011, Barrick Gold and the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan agreed in 2022 to reconstitute it, owned 50 percent by Barrick and 50 percent by Pakistani public entities, including Balochistan’s government. Barrick has targeted first production in 2028.

S

Saindak

energy & resources. Also Saindak Copper-Gold Project. A copper and gold mine in Chagai District, Balochistan, near the borders with Iran and Afghanistan. Developed in the 1990s by the state-owned Saindak Metals Limited, it has been run since the early 2000s by the Metallurgical Corporation of China under a lease from Pakistan’s federal government, which was extended for five more years in 2023. How its revenue is shared with Balochistan is a recurring point of debate.

T

TAPI gas pipeline

energy & resources. Also TAPI, Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India pipeline. A proposed 1,814-kilometre pipeline to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh field through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India, developed with the Asian Development Bank as transaction adviser. It was designed to carry about 33 billion cubic metres a year. Work began in Turkmenistan in the 2010s, but progress on the Afghan and Pakistani sections has been slow because of security, financing and political obstacles.

Definitions are kept short and neutral, and each cites its sources on the term’s page. Spotted something to correct? Tell us.