{"id":7251,"date":"2026-04-16T12:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/?p=7251"},"modified":"2026-04-16T12:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:24:14","slug":"power-minister-reiterates-govts-apology-for-power-cuts-arising-from-out-of-control-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/power-minister-reiterates-govts-apology-for-power-cuts-arising-from-out-of-control-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"Power minister reiterates govt\u2019s apology for power cuts arising from \u2018out of control\u2019 situation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday reiterated the government\u2019s apology for excessive loadshedding, explaining that the external factor of the fuel supply crisis due to the Middle East war was one of the main reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Leghari reiterated the apology for higher than promised \u201cload management\u201d, which the government had blamed on lower water availability for power generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf the public his facing any inconveniences due to us not providing electricity at night and during peak hours, I am directly answerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe apologise too but [\u2026] the circumstances are such that they are not in our control. Even then, we ought to apologise,\u201d the minister noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the country had a total shortfall of 2,500 megawatts (MW) due to two reasons: the shortage of fuel imports due to the ongoing Middle East war and reduced hydropower generation due to a water shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leghari said the requirements of liquified natural gas (LNG) \u201cstopped coming from abroad after April 1\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He pointed out that Qatar\u2019s state-run energy firm had declared&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1978308\">force majeure<\/a>, which resulted in a \u201chuge gap\u201d in the power requirements fulfilled through gas plants during peak hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minister recalled that the electricity generated from water resources was 3,200MW in April 2025, while the output from LNG plants was 3,000MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year, he said, the 3,200MW hydropower was reduced to 1,671MW due to water not being released from Mangla and Tarbela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leghari observed that the shortfall from LNG plants due to the lack of fuel imports was 2,500MW, whereas the shortfall in hydropower was 1,530MW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leghari asserted that the PML-N government in 2017 and over the past few years had \u201cfreed the entire public from darkness and loadshedding\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He noted that Pakistan\u2019s shift to renewable energy had been acknowledged in the international media, adding that it was \u201cthrough the investments made by people, not with the support of IPPs (independent power producers) and expensive loans\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Power Minister Awais Leghari on Thursday reiterated the government\u2019s apology for excessive loadshedding, explaining that the external factor of the fuel supply crisis due to the Middle East war was one of the main reasons. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Leghari reiterated the apology for higher than promised \u201cload management\u201d, which the government had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-load-shedding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7253,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251\/revisions\/7253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanaffairs.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}