Pakistan, May 18 -- Pakistan's electricity sector is no longer defined by a simple shortage of generation or a cyclical problem of load-shedding. It is increasingly shaped by a deeper structural transition where an ageing utility model is colliding with two simultaneous disruptions: a weakening transmission and distribution backbone, and a rapid shift toward decentralised, consumer-owned energy systems. The result is not just an energy crisis, but a systemic reordering of how electricity is produced, delivered, and paid for.

For years, policy discourse focused on adding megawatts. That approach delivered scale, particularly through investments linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, but it did not resolve the core constraint: the...