Power Minister Awais Leghari on Sunday blamed prolonged power outages nationwide the past week on transmission constraints and fuel mismanagement, as well as foggy weather I the country’s north.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said the grid was under pressure due to the fog, north-south transmission constraints, an extended scheduled outage of a major nuclear power plant, and problems in the fuel mix for the Sahiwal Coal Power Project. However, he stressed, the primary issue was the fog, which had resulted in tripping of the transmission system.
Apologizing for the inconvenience, he maintained the issue could not be fully addressed due to prevailing weather conditions.
Discussing the State of the Industry Report 2025 issued by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), he claimed it was based on outdated data. The report had observed that Rs. 3.23/unit was being imposed on consumers in the form of debt servicing; Leghari claimed this was in place for years but had been fixed for expiry within 6 years by the incumbent government.
Similarly, he rebutted the report’s pointing to high system losses as posing an unnecessary burden on consumers, insisting the Finance Ministry was financing this through taxes and there was no additional burden on consumers. He said the Power Division would share its concerns with NEPRA through an official letter.
Leghari said he agreed with NEPRA’s projections of a surplus margin of up to 8,700MW as increasing generation costs and resulting in higher tariffs. This, he said, was a result of the majority of plants operating under “take or pay” or “must run” agreements. He claimed the government’s introduction of a surplus power package for industrial and agricultural consumers at discounted rates was yielding positive results.
The minister said the government’s latest plan aimed at shifting the country’s approach by excluding 7,967MW high-cost and non-essential generation projects while prioritizing low-cost, indigenous, and renewable energy sources. This, he claimed, could save up to $17 billion over a decade. This process, he claimed, had already reduced the financial burden by Rs. 400 billion this year.
During his press conference, Leghari admitted that the practice of issuing electricity bills with incorrect readings hampered recoveries. He hoped NEPRA would soon approve investment plans to enable DISCOs to introduce automated meter reading devices to address this.
The power minister also pushed back on NEPRA attributing the circular debt reduction of Rs. 780 billion last year to external financial injections rather than structural improvements. He said the reduction was due to a mix of lower losses (Rs. 193 billion), waiver of late payment surcharges with power producers (Rs. 260 billion), and Rs. 300 billion due to macroeconomic improvements like exchange and interest rates. He also questioned NEPRA’s assertion that K-Electric was the sole DISCO that has not contributed to the circular debt. “K-Electric had contributed to the accumulation of circular debt in the past by not paying electricity dues to CPPA-G. Up to June 2023, the resulting addition to circular debt due to K-Electric’s non-payment amounted to Rs. 640 billion,” he maintained.
Leghari concluded his press conference by emphasizing that the average tariff had dropped from Rs. 53.04/unit in March 2024 to Rs. 42.27/unit in December 2025.