Pakistan, April 15 -- The state has announced 2.25 hours of daily peak-time load management and presented it as a way to prevent a sharper tariff shock: in present circumstances, that is a defensible call. A country already burdened by inflation cannot casually push another Rs5 to Rs6 per unit onto households and industry when an external war has disrupted LNG flows and tightened the regional energy market. Pakistanis know the hardship of power cuts. They also know the cost of chaos. Faced with a constrained choice, the government has opted for a limited and declared burden instead of a larger and lasting one.

That does not erase the public pain. In Karachi and other cities, interrupted power means stalled kitchens, delayed shop work, di...