Federal Energy Minister Awais Leghari said Pakistan will introduce transformer-based load shedding from June 2027, so outages tied to electricity theft fall on individual transformers rather than entire feeders.
Speaking to reporters in Dera Ghazi Khan after reviewing work at Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari International Airport, he said the change is meant to tackle power theft while limiting how widely scheduled cuts spread. Under the present feeder-based approach, a whole line can go dark when losses or theft are high on that feeder. A feeder is the main distribution line that supplies many streets or neighbourhoods; a transformer steps voltage down for a smaller cluster of users.
What the minister announced
Leghari said the government wants interruptions in theft-affected areas applied at transformer level instead of across the full feeder linked to those losses. He framed the shift as a way to address electricity theft without placing the same outage burden on every consumer served by that feeder.
He also said nighttime load shedding has been held to two hours, which he linked to protecting consumers from an additional burden of Rs6 per unit. He did not give further figures on how that saving was calculated, and he did not detail the technical steps, timelines for pilots, or how success of the new transformer-based load shedding model would be measured.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 19 October 2026: In Dera Ghazi Khan, Leghari announces the plan to move theft-related outages from feeders to transformers from June 2027.
- Now: He says night load shedding is limited to two hours and that this has shielded consumers from an extra Rs6 per unit.
- June 2027: Planned start of transformer-level load shedding in areas affected by electricity theft.
- By end of 2027 (stated target): The minister said the DG Khan airport, closed for five years, is expected to become operational again; he also referred to international flight operations by that horizon.
Airport visit and other remarks
Earlier the same day, Pakistan Airports Authority officials briefed him on a Rs5.5 billion expansion he said had the prime minister’s approval. Officials said the runway is being lengthened from 6,000 feet to 10,000 feet and widened from 30 metres to 45 metres, with facilities for night landings, and that the work is expected to take 18 months. Leghari said passengers from the Dera Ghazi Khan Division and districts in neighbouring provinces would use the airport once it is running.
He also said talks were under way within the ruling party on creating administrative units, noting that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had already secured assembly resolutions supporting South Punjab and Bahawalpur provinces. Those remarks were separate from the power-supply announcement.
Aasan alfaaz mein
June 2027 se sarkar bijli chori wale ilaqon mein poori feeder ki jagah transformer par load shedding karne ka plan bana rahi hai. Iska matlab yeh hai ke chori jahan ho, wahan zyada focused cuts hon, aur doosre gharon ko utni bari line band hone se bachaya ja sake. Abhi raat ko load shedding do ghante tak limited rakhi gayi hai, jis se wazir ke mutabiq logon ko Rs6 per unit ka extra bojh nahi para. Agar aap regular bill bharte hain, to policy ka asar aap ke transformer aur ilaqe ki chori ki surat par depend karega.
