Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s complaint about alleged corruption in Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) should worry the government for reasons larger than one transformer in one village. According to Mr Asif, villagers had to collect Rs 80,000 for the repair of a transformer and no receipt was issued. Power Minister Awais Leghari has since said strict action has been taken against the relevant line superintendent, calling the complaint a welcome act of self-accountability. That response deserves acknowledgement. It is far better than the old official habit of treating every allegation as an attack on the ministry. Yet the matter cannot end with one disciplinary action.
That Mr Asif had to raise this publicly speaks volumes about the citizens’ place in the system. He is not an ordinary complainant. He is a senior cabinet member, a former power minister and a politician with direct knowledge of how distribution companies work. If even his intervention could not prevent a receiptless payment in a village, what horrors must the common consumer face as he runs from pillar to post merely to get a public service he has already paid for?
The question becomes sharper because former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafique also took to social media to complain about administrative handling after traffic restrictions near Islamabad airport reportedly caused him to miss a flight to Skardu. Taken together, the two episodes reveal something awkward for the ruling party: some of its own senior figures are now publicly protesting against the machinery their government is supposed to command.
There is no need to pretend that no work is being done. LESCO has reported savings of more than Rs 138 billion; a reduction in transmission and distribution losses, and substantial improvements in recovery and complaint disposal. These gains matter, especially in a power sector where every percentage point lost to theft or non-recovery eventually returns to the end consumer as subsidy burden or circular debt. Mr Leghari’s willingness to concede that corruption exists inside Discos, even as he put its prevalence at 10 to 15 per cent, is also welcome. Denial, after all, has long been the first refuge of institutions that prefer managing embarrassment to fixing rot.
Even so, NEPRA’s broader assessment leaves little room for comfort: no Disco met its prescribed T&D-loss targets in FY2024-25, the sector incurred an estimated Rs265 billion loss on that count alone, and LESCO’s own financial impact was put at Rs35.17 billion.
The government has been right to speak of power-sector reforms and better management of Discos. However, reform should not be confined solely to privatisation plans. Instead of looking for a scapegoat after the horse has bolted, those in power would do well to ask what procedure the ministry changed to ensure that the next citizen is not asked for a bribe.
