• Sharmila Farooqi accuses govt of penalising citizens who invested in solar
• Leghari says net-metering changes about ‘fair pricing, not anti-solar’
• PTI MNA raises Middle East issue, terms Israel’s West Bank occupation illegal

ISLAMABAD: The National Asse­mbly on Wednesday witnessed rare unity across the aisle as members from both the treasury and opposition benches challenged the government over changes to the net-metering reg­ime, and demanded a debate on Israel’s illegal actions in the occupied West Bank.

PPP MNA Sharmila Farooqi moved a calling-attention notice on the power regulator’s decision to replace net metering with net billing for solar consumers, a move that had triggered public concern as it would penalise citizens who invested in rooftop solar under government incentives.

Power Minister Sardar Awais Leghari told the House the issue had been under discussion for the past nine to 10 months and had been taken to the federal cabinet, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif advised further deliberations.

The debate followed a notification issued earlier this week by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), replacing the existing net-metering framework with a net-billing mechanism for current and future solar consumers. The move drew widespread criticism, and the prime minister subsequently directed the Power Division to file a review petition and pause implementation until further hearings.

Mr Leghari said distributed solar generation in the country was estimated at 20,000-22,000 megawatts (MW), of which 6,000-7,000MW fell under net metering. Of this, 2,200MW was attributed to industrial users and 4,800MW to commercial and domestic consumers, he said.

“Only 456,000 consumers are on net metering,” he said, arguing it was “incorrect to suggest that the entire public will suffer” as a result of the change. He said net-metered consumers accounted for about eight to 10 per cent of total solar users.

The minister said the buyback rate for existing net-metering users had been maintained at Rs27 per unit due to contractual obligations. However, he acknowledged concerns from consumers who questioned why electricity purchased from them at Rs27 was supplied back at Rs45-Rs65 per unit.

Explaining the pricing structure, he said the average generation cost — combining hydel, solar, wind, nuclear, gas and coal — stood at Rs8.31 per unit. “In that context, how can Rs27 be justified?” he asked.

Mr Leghari said annual returns for net-metering investors would fall from 50pc to 37pc under the revised mechanism, but insisted that no one would incur losses.

He said the prime minister had directed the Power Division to await Nepra’s hearing and prepare a strategy to minimise any burden on grid consumers arising from net-metering arrangements.

In a supplementary question, Ms Farooqi accused the government of reversing its clean energy policy and unfairly targeting citizens who adopted solar due to official incentives.

“These are the people who acted on the government’s call to adopt renewable energy,” she said, adding that consumers were being blamed and punished for issues such as inefficiencies, line losses and capacity payments.

Amid applause from members of the opposition benches, Ms Farooqi described the regulatory changes as “broad daylight robbery” and alleged the Power Division was shifting the cost of inefficiencies onto compliant consumers.

In response, Mr Leghari said the calling-attention notice had become redundant as the prime minister had already directed that net billing not be implemented until a review was completed.

While acknowledging structural problems in the power sector, he maintained that rationalising net metering was necessary to avoid an additional burden on grid consumers, and said the issue was separate from inefficiencies in the electricity system.

Middle East situation

Separately, MNA Osama Hamza of the PTI raised the situation in the Middle East and said Israel was illegally occupying the West Bank.

“The situation in the Middle East was only because of the backing of the US, which claims to be the champion of human rights. The tension related to Iran and the recent terror attack in Islamabad’s Tarlai area are all related to these developments in the Middle East,” Mr Hamza said.

In response, the law minister cited Pakistan’s condemnation of Israel at various forums. However, when Mr Hamza sought to speak further during the supplementary stage over the concept of ‘Peace of Board’ on Gaza, the session was adjourned, leading to a protest from members on both sides who said the House should have been allowed to debate the issue.

Earlier, lawmakers also raised concerns over new polio cases in the country. MNAs Naeema Kishwer Khan, Aliya Kamran, Muhammad Usman Badini and Shahida Begum submitted a calling-attention notice, noting that Pakistan and Afghanistan remained the only countries where polio persisted.

Coordinator to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad told the House that the anti-polio drive was yielding results, insisting that no case had been reported from Balochistan in the past 14 months. He said sewage sampling had detected the presence of the poliovirus in some areas of Karachi and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where refusal rates were also high. He said the entire nation needed to adopt lifestyle changes to eradicate polio, including changes in environmental conditions, hygiene, improved nutrition, etc.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2026