ISLAMABAD: The government on Sunday acknowledged power outages across Pakistan over the past 8–10 days, attributing them to transmission constraints, fuel mismanagement, and adverse weather conditions. Speaking at a press conference, Power Minister Awais Leghari said fog, north-south transmission bottlenecks, extended maintenance at a nuclear plant, and fuel arrangement issues at the Sahiwal Coal Power Project all contributed to lower electricity production.
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The minister emphasised that repeated tripping of the transmission system due to weather was the main factor behind the outages. Hydropower generation was also reduced during annual canal closures. Leghari apologised to consumers but insisted there was little the government could do under the prevailing circumstances.
He criticised the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) State of the Industry Report 2025 as outdated and said it misrepresented electricity costs and system losses. According to him, the government had reduced tariffs from Rs53.04 per unit in March 2024 to Rs42.27 in December 2025 and had introduced discounted surplus power packages for industrial and agricultural users, yielding positive results in December.
Leghari highlighted ongoing reforms in power sector planning, including the IGCEP 2025-35, prioritising low-cost, indigenous, and renewable energy projects while eliminating non-essential high-cost generation projects. He also outlined improvements in bill recovery by distribution companies, citing increases from 92.4% to 96.6% in FY2025, and steps to introduce automated meter reading (AMR) devices.
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On circular debt, the minister disputed Nepra’s claim that reductions relied on external funding, stating structural improvements and macroeconomic gains reduced debt by Rs780 billion last year. He also pointed to past non-payments by K-Electric contributing to Rs640 billion of debt accumulation, noting regulatory leniency had resulted in over Rs500 billion in subsidies to consumers.