Federal Minister for Information Technology, Shaza Fatima, underlined that the proposed Telecom Bill will not allow forceful occupancy of private land or property of any person and said that appropriate categories for private properties will be defined.

Shaza Fatima, along with Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, rejected the allegations of financial irregularities and other allegations in respect of Telecom Bill as unfounded in a news conference here. She said the prime minister has been asked to direct an investigation into the allegations leveled against the legislation.

The IT minister said that the main aim of the new Telecom Bill is to provide high-speed internet across the country and the legislation is being built through consensus.

On the occasion Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar indicated that consent of the property owner will be mandatory before building fiber-optic infrastructure on private land. He said the Telecommunications Act Bill had been passed with six revisions.

Tarar also stated the parliamentary committee did not find any indication that the law was designed to favor any particular firm and had directed all faults in the draft legislation to be remedied.

Pakistan has increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices by up to 16.17 percent, a new government notification issued on Saturday said, upping the cost of the gas delivered through the Sui Southern and Sui Northern distribution networks.

According to the latest notification, the price of LNG delivered through the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) system has been increased by $2.59 per MMBtu. The notified price was reduced to $18.64 per MMBtu.

The hike is one of the latest adjustments in notified LNG pricing and would be effective for the consumers connected to SSGC network.

A similar change has also been announced for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) system.

The notification said the LNG price for the SNGPL network has been enhanced by $2.54 per MMBtu and the new notified rate has been fixed at $19.52 per MMBtu.

LNG prices are up as high as 16.17 percent overall, with both gas utilities seeing hikes of more than $2.5 per MMBtu under the changed pricing system.

The current announcement regularizes the new LNG rates for SSGC and SNGPL systems with revised pricing set at $18.64 per MMBtu and $19.52 per MMBtu correspondingly.

The cabinet of Iraq accepted the signing of “a heads of agreement”, or preliminary agreement, and a non-disclosure agreement by the Basra Oil Company with a consortium of U.S. businesses Capital TI and Chevron and Qatar’s UCC to examine key oil export pipeline projects, a cabinet statement said.

The consortium will carry out technical and financial feasibility assessments of the planned routes Basra-Haditha-Kirkuk-Ceyhan and Basra-Haditha-Baniyas. The agreements would not place any final financial or contractual obligations on the Iraqi oil ministry, the cabinet stated.