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Energy sector specialists assessed Pakistan’s evolving power landscape at the Dialogue on the Economy, an event hosted by the Pakistan Business Council in Islamabad that brought together ministers, corporate leaders, economists and policy experts. The panel explored both the opportunities and the persistent challenges shaping the country’s energy future.
Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Laghari led the discussion, stressing that the government is prioritising depoliticisation of the power sector, sustainable management of circular debt and the renegotiation of earlier IPP agreements. He noted that Pakistan has, for the first time, introduced an integrated power procurement plan that incorporates transmission constraints to enable power trading and wheeling across the system.
Laghari said Pakistan’s early push for solar in 2017 and 2018 faced significant hurdles, yet the country now operates one of the strongest renewable energy and solar models in the region. He emphasised that long-term reform demands political commitment, reduced losses in distribution companies, stronger boards and strict accountability. The government, he added, is preparing distribution companies for eventual privatisation, while uniform tariffs are becoming impractical, prompting amendments to the NEPRA Act aimed at strengthening regulatory oversight.
At the session, Danish Khaliq, Vice President Sales and Strategy at BYD MMC Pakistan, said the country is approaching a “step-change revolution” in new energy vehicles, comparable to the rapid, non-linear adoption trends witnessed during the telecom boom. He said electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles sit at the intersection of transportation, energy and the environment, offering gains across all three areas.
Khaliq highlighted that road transport produces about 43 percent of Pakistan’s air pollution and represents a major share of the national fuel import bill. Accelerating NEV adoption, he said, would reduce pollution, cut import dependence and bring advanced automotive technologies into the country.
He noted that BYD is establishing a local assembly plant, which is expected to trigger localisation and industrial activity. Addressing concerns regarding power demand, he said National Electric Vehicles (NEVs) are unlikely to strain the national grid and will instead help improve utilisation of existing capacity as charging infrastructure and local manufacturing expand.
Dr. Naveed Arshad, Director of the Energy Institute at LUMS, said Pakistan’s next major leap in renewable energy will be driven by advances in battery storage rather than solar expansion alone. He noted that storage costs have dropped significantly and modern batteries now provide up to 10,000 cycles, making them both affordable and durable.
“The grid no longer has to operate as if electricity cannot be stored,” he said, describing this shift as a decisive turning point for the power sector.
He explained that improved storage technologies are enabling solar-plus-storage systems, consumer microgrids and virtual power plants that allow households and businesses to sell stored electricity back to the grid operator.
When combined with digitisation, energy efficiency tools and carbon credit mechanisms, these innovations could fast-track Pakistan’s decarbonisation efforts, he said. However, Dr. Arshad warned that Pakistan’s tariff structure remains outdated, calling it “stuck in the 1960s.”
He identified tariff reform as the country’s most urgent need, advocating for time-of-use and real-time pricing models that reflect low-cost solar generation periods, reduce circular debt exposure and offer more flexibility to industrial users.
