Pakistan’s reliance on Chinese-built power plants is strangling its economy
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—When Muhammad Imtiaz received an electricity bill of over $120 last summer, he panicked. The bill, for June and July, was all he earns in a month of ferrying passengers on his motorbike in the scrappy suburbs outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
In his two-room home, where he lives with his wife and four children, he only has a fridge and lights. He runs two fans in the summer months when heat can exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. “Should I give my rent, pay the electricity bill, or buy food for my children?" said Imtiaz, who has racked up $3,000 in debt.
His family has one meal a day: watered-down lentils with flatbread. A decade ago, Pakistan, cripplingly short of power, turned to Beijing to build more than a dozen coal, solar and hydroelectric power plants as part of China’s huge infrastructure push in the country. Now a series of policy mistakes by Islamabad means that Pakistan has enough electricity and more—but, due to the huge debt owed to China, few can afford it.
The crisis is overwhelming Pakistan’s fragile economy, throwing millions of households into misery, shredding government finances and shutting down industry. The growing emergency is straining Pakistan’s relationship with China—one of its closest allies, with deep military ties and a common rival in India. Pakistan is one of the most prominent examples of China’s goal of courting the developing world in order to challenge the U.S., which is also a long-term ally of Islamabad.
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