Pakistan recovers Rs84 billion from power thieves, defaulters in crackdown

The Power Division has recovered over Rs1.50 billion during a countrywide power theft crackdown from March 24 to 31, taking the overall recoveries to Rs84 billion, ARY News reported on Saturday. 

To minimize the losses in the power sector, the caretaker government and military leadership of the country in September decided to launch a countrywide crackdown on power thieves.

Pakistan has so far recovered Rs84 billion fine during a countrywide crackdown on the power pilfers while over 62,000 people have been taken into custody from September 1 till date.

As per details shared by the Power Division, Rs1.05 billion were recovered from power thieves from Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and Islamabad from March 24 to 31.

Furthermore, Rs0.599 billion were recovered from Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta and other areas.

Read more: Mardan becomes Pakistan’s first power theft-free city

On October 18, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Mardan was declared loadshedding-free city under the “Zero-Theft, Zero-Loadshedding” initiative launched by the power division.

Mardan had been facing power outages for more than six hours a day.

Secretary Power Division Rashid Langrial launched “The Mardan Model” in Islamabad, under which there would be no loadshedding in the city as the power theft has ended and recoveries have also improved in the region. With this Mardan has become Pakistan’s first power theft-free city.