Few decisions have cast as dark and enduring shadows on Pakistan's economy as the power sector — electricity and gas. The 2016 LNG deal stands out as one of the contributors to this adversity.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had, as petroleum minister, led the country into this contract with Qatar and touted it as a game-changer for the country's energy crisis. Nearly a decade on, one wonders if it was a game-changer or a fiscal disaster. It now appears as a carelessly designed deal more to serve personal interests of the few than ensuring long-term energy interests of the country.

The LNG deal, say critics, locked Pakistan into a rigid fifteen-year arrangement which is now turning into a financial liability. The country is now awash in imported LNG it cannot afford to consume. As of late July, three fully-loaded Qatari cargoes sat idle, while authorities scramble to offload gas on the international market. What was intended to be a lifeline has become a bleeding artery, draining precious resources from an already battered national exchequer.

By late July, the circular debt linked directly to the LNG deal had exceeded $11 billion. The LNG-fired power plants, constructed then as "symbols of technological progress", have become monuments of economic ruin, according to some experts. Built at over $4 billion, including the grid infrastructure, these plants now........

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