LAHORE: The All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union has called for a review of agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) and opposed the proposed privatisation of profitable distribution companies.

In a meeting held at Bakhtiar Labour Hall, the union’s general secretary Khurshid Ahmed urged the government to reconsider unfair and anti-people terms and conditions of the IPP agreements in view of the economic difficulties faced by the public. He said billions of dollars were being paid annually to the IPPs even when their electricity was not purchased while the country’s power crisis remained unresolved.

He said the increase in power tariffs had become a burden for low-income households.

Mr Ahmed also criticised the government’s plans to privatise profitable power distribution companies, expressing concern at its haste to assure an IMF delegation that national assets would be transferred to the private sector at the earliest.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2026