🔳 And Now, Iranian Electricity
Public Investigative Series | Episode 29
Topic: How Can Pakistan’s Electricity System Be Fixed?
Title: Iranian Electricity
🔺 When institutions avoid providing facts, the responsibility of reaching the truth falls upon the public. Written and Researched by Syed Shayan
The Nation, an English-language newspaper published from Lahore, reported on May 16, 2026, that NEPRA had formally approved the amended agreement and new tariff between the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G) and Iran’s state-owned power company, TAVANIR, for the import of electricity from Iran.
Under this decision, Pakistan will receive an additional 100 MW of electricity from Iran for Makran Division, along with an extension of the existing supply.
This news is a matter of deep pain and concern not only for me, but for all Pakistanis. The entire country, and people from every school of thought, have long been crying out for mercy on Pakistan’s electricity sector. They have been demanding relief from expensive electricity, capacity charges, load-shedding and unbearable power bills.
Such news deepens the feeling that our rulers and bureaucracy will continue to do whatever they have already decided in their own minds. Public opinion, civil society, think tanks, newspapers and the voices of experts perhaps no longer carry any real weight for them.
It is also important to clarify that electricity is not being imported from Iran for the first time. This arrangement began in 2023, when Shehbaz Sharif was Prime Minister and Federal Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir Khan was pushing the project forward. During that period, agreements were made with Iran’s state-owned company TAVANIR for the import of electricity, and the process of supplying electricity from Iran to Makran Division, particularly Gwadar, Turbat, Panjgur and surrounding areas, was accelerated.
It should be remembered that Pakistan’s first Power Purchase Agreement for electricity imports from Iran was signed in 2002. After that, during 2003 and 2004, limited electricity imports from Iran began for the border areas of Balochistan, particularly Makran Division. Initially, this supply was around 34 MW, which gradually increased to between 70 MW and 104 MW. After the recent approval, an additional 100 MW supply is also being added, bringing total imports to around 200 MW to 204 MW.
But the real question is this: what could be more astonishing and dangerous as a policy than treating a region blessed by nature with sun, wind and water as dependent on imported electricity?
In a place where sunlight, wind and water are available as free fuel for electricity generation, if we still build our energy base on dollar-based and “Take or Pay” imported electricity, and link its prices to OPEC oil and international fuel prices, then it is natural to ask: where exactly are we heading? It is difficult to understand who these people are who keep making such decisions. By now, all of this has gone beyond the understanding of even an ordinary citizen.
Regions like Makran and Gwadar could have met a major part of their electricity needs through a few solar parks, wind turbines and local energy projects. Unfortunately, even here, our priority remains imported electricity and imported fuel.
We call Gwadar the crown of CPEC, the future economic hub and the symbol of Pakistan’s maritime future. Yet we have placed its energy foundation on electricity from a country whose own internal situation has often remained unstable.
For a long time, local consumers, industrialists and technical experts have been expressing serious concerns about the reliability and quality of electricity supplied from Iran to Makran Division, particularly Gwadar, Turbat, Panjgur and nearby areas. Behind this unreliable electricity supply, 4 major problems are repeatedly identified:
NEPRA’s approval of a tariff of 12.40 US cents per unit for the import of an additional 100 MW, and a total of approximately 204 MW, from Iran raises serious questions about the priorities of Pakistan’s power sector.
Were our policy-makers and regulators unaware that problems related to the quality, voltage, grid stability and supply of this electricity had existed for years? If the same situation had been continuing since 2023, then why were local solar and wind projects not developed in Makran and Gwadar during this period?
The world is turning its coastal regions into Clean Energy Hubs, while we remain trapped in imported electricity, dollar-based agreements and “Take or Pay” models. In such circumstances, the public is fully justified in asking: if this is the standard of governance and planning, then in which direction are the country’s highest institutions and bureaucratic minds taking the nation?
[To be continued in the next episode.]
