Pakistan's solar story is often told as a simple one. Electricity became expensive, supply remained unreliable, solar equipment got cheaper, and consumers responded rationally. Homes, businesses, farms and institutions moved toward solar because the economics made sense. That part is true. But it is no longer the whole story.

The more important question now is not whether solar will continue to grow. It almost certainly will. The real question is whether Pakistan can govern that growth well enough to make it visible, credible and durable.

For years, solar was treated mainly as a consumer response to high tariffs and unreliable service. But once a technology spreads at scale, it stops being only a private choice. It becomes a market transition. And market transitions need governance.

That does not mean slowing solar down. The larger the market becomes; the more important governance becomes if growth is to remain healthy rather than chaotic.

One reason this matters is that the visible solar market appears smaller than the real one. Publicly visible........

© The Express Tribune