Pakistan has 46,605 MW of installed power generation capacity. Peak demand rarely touches 30,000 MW. Consumers are paying roughly Rs 2.5 to 2.8 trillion a year for plants that sit idle. And the solution that policymakers keep returning to, every few months, is to shut Lahore’s clothing markets at 8pm.
Facing high energy bills and IMF conditions, the government keeps reviving the same tired debate: should markets and retail businesses close earlier to save electricity? On paper, it looks logical. Curb consumption, ease the grid. In practice, it is a distraction that mistakes a structural crisis for a behavioural failing.
The climate reality cannot be ignored
Pakistan runs a night economy, especially in summer. Temperatures in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad routinely exceed 40°C, often nearing 45°C. Families shift shopping to after sunset to escape the heat. This is not laziness; it is climatic necessity. Gulf states operate on similar patterns for the same reason. Imposing European-style retail hours on South Asian summers defies environmental logic.
The data does not support blaming retail
Pakistan’s electricity problem is not too much demand. It is too little. Installed capacity stands at 46,605 MW. Firm dispatchable capacity is around 40,000 MW. IEEFA estimates the grid is sitting on a surplus of 10 to 12 GW. Total electricity consumption actually fell by 3.6 percent during July to March of FY25, as households and industry quietly exited the grid via rooftop solar, which has now crossed 5.3 GW of net-metered capacity. Yet consumers continue to shoulder capacity payments of Rs 2.5 to 2.8 trillion a year, up from Rs 0.97 trillion in FY22, for power they never use.
The structural drivers of the crisis are familiar to anyone paying attention: transmission and distribution losses averaging around 17.5 percent, widespread theft, dollar-indexed power purchase agreements signed in the CPEC-era IPP boom, chronic DISCO underperformance, a power sector circular debt of Rs 1.84 trillion as of February 2026, and a combined energy sector circular debt (gas plus power) that the IMF now puts at Rs 5.2 trillion.
If early closures were a serious answer, the repeated attempts of the last decade would have already resolved the crisis. They have not. Even if every market in the country went dark by sundown, the savings would barely register against a system carrying ten gigawatts of permanent surplus. The economic fallout, however, would be immediate.
Evenings are the lifeline for millions
For small businesses, evenings are the peak earning window. Restaurants, clothing stores, grocery shops, tea stalls, delivery riders, and street vendors generate the largest share of their daily revenue after Maghrib. A Lahore shopkeeper might serve five customers in the afternoon and fifty between 7pm and 11pm.
Cutting these hours directly hits sales, wages, employment, and tax revenue. In an economy already strained by weak consumer spending, declining purchasing power, and rising unemployment, shrinking retail hours during a slowdown amounts to self-harm.
The real waste lies elsewhere
While small retailers are penalised, far larger losses go unaddressed.
Government buildings run air conditioners around the clock. Industrial units bypass meters. High-loss feeders in PESCO, SEPCO, and QESCO bleed power at rates unacceptable in any serious energy system. These inefficiencies dwarf any conceivable savings from dimming shop lights.
Small retailers are simply easier targets. Shutting markets delivers political theatre: visible, low-cost, administratively straightforward. Reforming the grid, prosecuting influential thieves, renegotiating IPP contracts, or rebuilding distribution infrastructure requires real confrontation with powerful interests. So the state chooses symbolism over substance.
Why the debate persists
This recurring focus is no accident. Policymakers need quick savings to show lenders. Early closures require no capital, no court battles, and no challenge to powerful producers or connected consumers. They simply burden a fragmented, politically weak retail sector. This is governance failure, not energy strategy.
What real reform looks like
Pakistan does not need shorter shopping hours. It needs:
Renegotiation of the dollar-indexed PPAs signed with the 2015 to 2018 CPEC-era IPPs that drive the bulk of the capacity payment burden, alongside a serious reckoning with the CPPA-G single-buyer architecture that locks those liabilities in.
Targeted reform of the worst-performing DISCOs, with PESCO, SEPCO, and QESCO carrying disproportionate system losses, backed by credible privatisation rather than another round of board reshuffling.
Prosecution of electricity theft at scale, including industrial bypassers and government offenders, not just domestic consumers and small shops.
Acceleration of smart metering, time-of-use tariffs, and structured grid integration of distributed solar under NEPRA’s recently notified grid connectivity regulations.
Affordable financing and tax incentives that convert the rooftop solar surge into a grid-stabilising asset rather than a flight from the grid that strands DISCO revenue.
A concrete first step
Rather than blanket mandates, the government should pilot a voluntary scheme: offer reduced tariffs to businesses that shift some operations to off-peak hours, for example early mornings, while preserving total operating time. This tests demand-side management without destroying livelihoods, and produces real data instead of recycled political theatre.
Conclusion
Pakistan does not suffer from people shopping too late. It suffers from low productivity, poor governance, and weak economic management. Early market closures are not a solution. They are a confession that the state prefers managing optics over fixing structures. Until the deeper reforms begin, this debate will remain what it has always been: a symbolic distraction from a structural failure.
Fazeel Asif
The author is a former advisor on Punjab govt. He enjoys deep insight of the public governance. He can be reached out at :
