The federal government plans to create special units to help power distribution companies (DISCOs) recover unpaid electricity bills.
These units will include personnel from intelligence agencies like the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), working under the DISCO’s CEO and alongside a civil armed forces sector commander who will serve as co-director. They will report directly to the Power Division secretary.
The proposal for these units has been sent to the Cabinet Committee for Energy for approval. Initially, the first unit will be set up at the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco). If successful, similar units may be established in other cities.
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This initiative is critical as DISCOs are struggling to recover Rs1,780 billion in unpaid dues.
Last year, a report highlighted that in four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—Bannu, DI Khan, Tank, and Shangla—none of the consumers paid their electricity bills.
Furthermore, in districts like Pasni, Gwadar, Makran, Khuzdar, and Lorelai in Balochistan, about 90% of people utilised illegal electricity.
During the last 12 months, DISCOs purchased 116.5 billion units of electricity but only sold 97.34 billion units to consumers. The remaining 19.17 billion units were lost due to theft or technical issues.
The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) faced significant losses, with 5.7 billion units worth Rs77 billion stolen within the year.
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