Discos Face Action Over Delayed Power Complaint Resolution

The federal government has ordered disciplinary proceedings against officials of power distribution companies after a performance review found serious delays in resolving electricity complaints across Pakistan. The action was initiated on Wednesday by the Power Division following directions from Power Minister Awais Leghari.

The review focused on complaint data gathered through the Customer Complaint Management System, commonly linked with Pakistan’s national 118 electricity complaint service. The assessment covered the period from October 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 and examined how distribution companies responded to public complaints about outages, voltage problems, line faults and transformer failures.

According to the Power Division, the data showed that many complaints were either addressed after the required time or remained unattended within the official response window. The findings pointed to prolonged disruptions for households, shopkeepers, farmers and other consumers who rely on timely repair work to keep daily life and business activity running.

Power Minister Awais Leghari expressed strong dissatisfaction with officers who failed to respond to consumer grievances on time. He said the complaint system was designed to reduce the gap between citizens and electricity companies, and that ignoring public complaints undermines the government’s stated commitment to consumer welfare.

The Power Division has prepared lists of the worst-performing officers in each distribution company and sent them to company heads for immediate departmental action. The proceedings are expected to cover sub-divisional officers and executive engineers whose jurisdictions recorded poor complaint-resolution performance.

Peshawar Electric Supply Company and Sukkur Electric Power Company were among the first to move on the federal directive. Pesco suspended three sub-divisional officers and one executive engineer over misconduct linked to failure to meet performance targets, while Sepco suspended one serving SDO and one former executive engineer on similar grounds.

The accountability drive is not limited to the two companies. Other power distributors, including Lesco, Gepco, Fesco, Iesco, Mepco, Hazeco, Hesco, Qesco and Tesco, have also been directed to begin action against their lowest-performing officials under service rules and complete proceedings within a defined timeframe.

Pakistan’s electricity consumers have long complained about slow repairs, repeated feeder trips, billing problems and weak field response from distribution companies. The latest review gives the government a data-based route to identify administrative bottlenecks, but meaningful improvement will depend on whether punishments are followed by better monitoring, staffing, equipment and field-level accountability.

For the public, the decision could become important if it leads to faster restoration after outages and more reliable handling of complaints during peak summer demand. The next step will be to see whether all distribution companies act consistently on the federal directive and whether the 118 complaint system begins producing visible relief for consumers nationwide.