Pakistan’s energy debate too often begins with a utility’s balance sheet and ends with somebody else’s bill. Millions of consumers barely enter the discussion: households buying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), families collecting firewood, workshops running generators and villages relying on small solar systems. They pay for energy and bear the consequences when it is unaffordable, unsafe or unreliable. Yet without a utility account, they remain largely invisible to a policy agenda organised around networks rather than needs.

Being off the grid does not place a consumer beyond public responsibility. Government and regulators must make adequate, safe and affordable energy services attainable, with clear, funded obligations assigned to suppliers. This need not mean a pipeline to every village or electricity at any price. Where network extension is uneconomic, another delivery system may serve people better. The obligation is to the consumer; infrastructure is the means, not the measure of success. This regulatory blind spot is a fundamental failure of how energy policy judges success. Tariffs, licences and service rules make billed customers visible while those outside utility networks can remain beyond effective protection. Their exclusion is a public-policy failure, not a reason to disclaim responsibility.

LPG already falls within the regulatory framework, and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has a stated consumer-protection remit. A Petroleum Division policy document published in 2024 also addresses off-grid demand and poor households. The problem is therefore not a complete absence of recognition, but the gap between recognition and results. Oversight of suppliers must not be mistaken for protection of people. The scale of the challenge is evident in the latest household evidence. The official release of the 2024–25 Household Integrated Economic Survey reported that clean-fuel use had risen from 35 to 38 per cent—progress, but far short of universal access. The World Bank’s Pakistan Energy Survey, based on fieldwork in 2021–22, assesses electricity and cooking services through a Multi-Tier Framework, looking beyond connection counts. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reports that 96 per cent of households used main-grid electricity or solar panels for lighting in 2024–25. Lighting access, however, does not establish reliable supply or enough capacity to refrigerate food, cook or operate machinery.

Pakistan’s solar revolution is already challenging the assumption that electricity access must wait for a grid connection. Solar home systems are bringing lighting, fans and phone charging to remote and underserved communities, including households beyond the network’s reach. The World Bank-supported Sindh Solar Energy Project recognises this opportunity through its focus on affordable systems in areas with little or no electricity access. Government should build on this approach so that families struggling to afford conventional energy can enter the solar economy. Properly designed systems can reduce recurring expenses, support study and small livelihoods, and contribute to poverty alleviation. Basic solar kits cannot replace cooking fuels; that requires appropriately sized supply and efficient appliances. The aim should be to turn solar from an advantage purchased by those with savings into an opportunity accessible to those who need it most.

Table 1 summarises the national indicators. Local assessments must then distinguish household and enterprise needs: a small solar system may provide lighting without supplying the dependable power a workshop requires. 

Data note: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, HIES 2024–25 and its official launch release; World Bank electricity-access data for 2024. Household and population measures have different denominators. None is a measure of piped-gas network coverage or energy affordability.

Table 2 places Pakistan in its regional context using a common electricity-access indicator and year.

Data note: World Bank, access to electricity (% of population), 2024. Figures are rounded to one decimal place; the share without access is calculated as 100 minus the published access rate. This compares electricity access—not total energy coverage, grid connections alone, clean cooking, reliability or affordability.

Pakistan ranks below six of its seven South Asian neighbours on this measure. Closing that gap matters, but coverage is a starting point for accountability, not its finishing line. Coverage gaps and differences in service should shape assistance. A low-income household buying LPG must find the money for a refill as well as delivery or transport. Support organised around utility accounts can overlook equally pressing needs........

© The Friday Times