THE privatisation programme seems to be moving forward — finally. Eleven prospective investors have now submitted expressions of interest for Gepco following a similarly strong response for Fesco earlier this month, with Iesco’s deadline still to come in September. The PIA sale appears to have supplied the push this programme needed — proof that the government is ready to wash its hands of businesses it should not have involved itself in. What makes the Discos’ response more encouraging than PIA’s is who is showing up. Turkish and Saudi investors are in the mix for both Gepco and Fesco, and Fesco separately drew Chinese interest — a foreign presence PIA’s privatisation could not attract. Add a list of big domestic companies and the field looks genuinely competitive rather than a formality staged for the government’s benefit.

None of that guarantees that interest will convert into bids the government is hoping for. The investor feedback report the Privatisation Commission compiled after its roadshows in Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and China reads more like a conditions list. Investors want the multi-year tariff control period stretched from five years to seven to 10, arguing that distribution assets with decades-long lives cannot be financed against a five-year regulatory horizon. They want tariffs tied to individual Disco performance rather than the current uniform structure, which effectively taxes efficient operators to subsidise inefficient ones. They want binding protection against tariffs or contracts being reopened later by a government or a court, a fear rooted in our history of renegotiating deals after the fact. And they want a regulator that can actually make faster decisions, have clearer enforcement powers but enjoy less discretion to intervene unpredictably. These are not cosmetic asks. They go to the heart of whether Pakistan’s regulatory institutions can credibly commit to arrangements that outlast the political cycle in which they are signed. If the government treats these concerns as bargaining noise to be managed rather than structural gaps to be fixed, the interest recorded this month may thin out by the time actual bids are due. But if it uses this feedback to extend the tariff regime, build real regulatory independence and put contractual guarantees beyond the reach of future reversal, the payoff will extend well past the power sector.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2026