As Pakistan struggles to procure fuel from the spot market, the country is cutting electricity to households and industry. According to reports, the cash-strapped country can no longer afford to buy coal or natural gas from overseas to fuel its power plants as prices of liquefied natural gas and coal surged last month amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war which further exacerbated supply shortfalls. A report by news agency Bloomberg suggests that Pakistan isn’t able to spend more on additional shipments after its energy costs more than doubled in nine months ending February from a year earlier.
Energy crisis in Pakistan
According to a Twitter post by Miftah Ismail – the current finance minister of the South Asian country selected by new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif following the ouster of Imran Khan from the top post – about 3,500 megawatts worth of power capacity had been shut due to the fuel shortages as of April 13. A similar amount is offline due to technical faults, he said.
