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Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Business Recorder

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Power sector: out of options

Power generation for July 2025 has declined by about 5 percent YoY, and nearly 10 percent below the pricing benchmark, reaffirming how ill-planned...

29.08.2025 20

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

The limitations of power sector privatisation

Despite poorly planned generation and transmission, stranded generation capacity, high capacity payments, technical and commercial losses, theft and...

05.08.2025 30

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Blackouts and broken promises: lessons from KE’s privatisation — II

Lessons and way forward The bottom line for consumers is that privatisation did not deliver reliable power, reasonable rates, or responsible...

10.07.2025 10

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Blackouts and broken promises: lessons from KE’s privatisation — I

Privatization was supposed to rescue Karachi’s power grid. However, two decades after handing Karachi Electric (KE) to private investors, the...

04.07.2025 10

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Power sector—hope on the horizon

Over the past year, power tariffs in Pakistan have come down considerably and, contingent on key reforms being implemented over the next five years,...

18.06.2025 10

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Economic realities and export

While macroeconomic indicators have achieved feeble stability over the past year, on-the-ground conditions remain as hopeless as they were a year ago....

06.06.2025 30

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Choking growth

Pakistan has reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF, meaning the economy gets to stay afloat for another six months. However, behind the...

01.04.2025 60

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Fix the EFS

Export-led growth is the mantra these days, but government seems uninterested in actually facilitating it. The Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) was a...

04.03.2025 10

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali

Let the market decide

With an IMF (International Monetary Fund) determined to punish past misdemeanours and a government unwilling to embrace meaningful reform,...

20.02.2025 10

Business Recorder

Shahid Sattar Absar Ali