KHYBER Pakhtunkhwa has rivers powerful enough to light Pakistan. Its waters feed Tarbela, Ghazi-Barotha and a chain of hydropower projects that together supply roughly 35% of the country’s total hydroelectric generation capacity. Electricity produced in KP travels across the national grid, powering homes, factories and industries from Karachi to Lahore, while families living beside those same rivers endure up to 18 hours of daily load shedding in summer heat that regularly exceeds 45°C. The gap between what KP contributes to the national grid and what its citizens receive in return is not a geographical accident. It is an institutional failure that the federal compact was specifically designed to prevent and has repeatedly failed to address.

The financial dimension of this compact is where the injustice becomes constitutionally measurable. Under Article 161(2) of the Constitution, provinces hosting hydropower plants are entitled to net hydel profit (NHP) from the use of their rivers. Yet after four decades, outstanding NHP arrears owed to KP have reportedly reached approximately Rs 2.3 trillion, more than its entire annual budget reflecting years of delayed settlements and disputed calculations. As recently as September 2025, WAPDA owed KP Rs 49.565 billion in current NHP dues alone. This federal failure is real, consequential and documented. But it is not the whole story. KP cannot demand accountability from Islamabad while ignoring what PESCO’s own figures reveal about losses........

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