ISLAMABAD: Pakistan took a decisive step away from decades of state-controlled electricity procurement on Sunday, inviting bids for its first electricity wheeling auction and signaling an end to government power purchases.
Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, addressing the nation in a televised speech from Islamabad, framed the move as a structural break from the past. “The government is practically exiting electricity purchases from today,” he said.
The Request for Proposals covers 400 megawatts in the first phase of the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market, with 800MW to be auctioned over five years. Under the arrangement, industrial and large consumers using more than one megawatt will be able to buy power directly from producers on a competitive basis.
“Nobody will have the right to sell electricity to the government, nor will the government be able to purchase it,” Leghari said.
The minister’s announcement came days after the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority approved uniform Use of System Charges for open-access bulk consumers, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for supplier choice.
Leghari said the market would expand over time to include ordinary consumers. “The government will no longer be able to purchase electricity and forcibly sell it to the public at its own rates,” he said, arguing that cheaper power would sharpen the competitiveness of Pakistani exports.
He acknowledged longstanding criticism of the current centralized system and the terms governing power purchases. “The name of IPPs has become notorious today,” he said, referring to independent power producers.
In a post on X, Leghari said the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had delivered on a commitment successive administrations had made for decades. “Suppliers and consumers of power can now transact with each other. No more buying of power by the government, no more IPPs,” he wrote.
