If Pakistan fails to meet this deadline, it will be liable to pay fines that could run into the millions of dollars per day.
Most of the Iranian side of the pipeline is believed to be completed but Pakistan has yet to build the roughly 780 kilometers (500 miles) of pipeline necessary to finish its side of the project.
There are serious doubts about how Pakistan could come up with the at least $1.5 billion needed to construct the pipeline.
An Islamabad-based advocacy group Sustainable Development Policy Institute in an October report termed the project a “death sentence” for Pakistan because it said the gas sold will likely be several times more expensive than the domestic gas currently used.
