Business Recorder
ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) slammed the government on Thursday for its “blatant failure” to meet electricity demand, leaving millions in the dark despite nearly 46,000 megawatts of installed capacity. PTI spokesman Sheikh Waqas Akram said the administration had not honoured its own pledge to limit load shedding to 2.5 hours. Instead, he regretted, Islamabad faces over four hours of power cuts, major Punjab cities like Lahore, Faisalabad, and Kasur endure up to eight hours, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other regions are left powerless for 16 hours or more. “The most visible and cruel manifestation of this failure is the ongoing, unscheduled load shedding across the country, turning homes, businesses, hospitals, and workplaces into sites of daily suffering,” he added. He criticised the government for calling the outages a “peak hours’ relief strategy,” calling it an insult to citizens’ intelligence, and said consumers already paid some of the region’s highest tariffs, rising from Rs20 to nearly Rs60 per unit. Akram also lambasted the government, saying swapping a USD 3 billion Saudi deposit for other foreign inflows exposed its failure to grow reserves through exports, investment, and reforms. He said International Monetary Fund (IMF) praise was limited to stabilising a crisis caused by the government itself, without a visible reform agenda or investor confidence-building. He condemned the government’s plan for a USD 2.5 billion loan after promising to “break the begging bowl,” warning that Pakistan’s investment climate is raising alarm among international partners. He noted European Union (EU) officials’ concerns that the government talks for investment but neglects trade, warning that Pakistan’s GSP+ status could be at risk over human rights issues and enforced disappearances. Akram challenged claims of a USD 1.07 billion current account surplus for March, pointing out the year-to-date surplus was negligible and the nine-month trade deficit rose past USD 25 billion, with stability reliant on remittances rather than real economic growth. He described the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) as deeply disappointing, noting that out of a Rs1 trillion allocation, only Rs588 billion had been released and Rs414 billion spent in nine months. He demanded the immediate release of remaining funds, especially for neglected regions and ex-FATA, whose NFC share remains unresolved eight years after merger. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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