Pakistan’s energy crisis is often described as a problem of scarcity. We are told there isn’t enough power, not enough gas, not enough capacity. But this narrative hides a more uncomfortable truth, Pakistan’s energy insecurity is not rooted in a lack of resources, it is the product of poor governance, flawed policies, and decades of strategic miscalculations.

Despite heavy investments in power generation, Pakistan still faces frequent outages, rising tariffs, and deepening energy poverty. By 2025, the country’s installed electricity capacity is expected to exceed 44,000 megawatts, yet actual usable supply hovers between 26,000 and 30,000 MW. This paradox, capacity without reliability, perfectly captures the failure of Pakistan’s energy sector.

Energy is the backbone of economic growth, when it falters, everything else follows. Pakistan’s industrial sectors, textiles, cement, fertilizer, and manufacturing, are repeatedly crippled by load shedding and fuel shortages. Each unit of lost electricity directly reduces national output, weakens exports, and discourages investment.

The economic burden is worsened by Pakistan’s dangerous dependence on imported fuels. Nearly 65 percent of the country’s primary energy mix relies on oil, LNG, and coal. When global prices spike, as they did in 2021 and again in 2022, Pakistan’s import bill balloons, foreign reserves........

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