Sindh High Court Suspends NEPRA's K-Electric Tariff Review, Karachi Rates Unchanged

The Sindh High Court has suspended NEPRA's review of K-Electric's multi-year tariff for now. The court passed the interim order on 7 October 2026, and K-Electric announced it on 8 October. Karachi's per-unit electricity rates do not change because of this order. K-Electric customers pay the same national tariff as the rest of Pakistan.

We read K-Electric's own statement and the four NEPRA notifications that the case is about. The review is worth understanding, because one change in it was about how much of the cost of unpaid bills Karachi's utility can recover through its tariff.

The court suspended the review notifications on 7 October 2026

The Sindh High Court issued notices to the respondents on 7 October 2026 and, in the meantime, suspended the challenged notifications and orders. K-Electric's statement says the court found that the points raised "merit consideration" and fixed the case for hearing. No next hearing date is given in the statement.

Suspended does not mean cancelled. An interim order freezes the effect of the challenged decisions until the court hears the case fully. NEPRA and the other respondents will now file their replies.

K-Electric challenged three sets of decisions

K-Electric went to court against the NEPRA Appellate Tribunal's judgments of 23 September 2026, NEPRA's review decisions of 20 October 2025, and the notifications that followed. Its position is that NEPRA can review a tariff, but a review cannot become a fresh tariff decision.

The company says the review decisions had "a substantial adverse impact" on its tariff for FY2024 to FY2030, and are not financially sustainable. That is K-Electric's argument, not a court finding. The court has only said the points deserve a hearing.

NEPRA notified four review decisions on 23 September 2026, all dated 20 October 2025. Each covers one part of K-Electric's business.

The review requests came from several sides. K-Electric filed one. So did the Ministry of Energy (Power Division), the Central Power Purchasing Agency, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and individual petitioners, according to NEPRA's notifications.

The review cut K-Electric's allowance for unpaid bills

The clearest change we found is in the supply decision. NEPRA's original 2025 tariff let K-Electric recover part of the cost of bills its customers never pay. NEPRA calls this a recovery loss. In the review, NEPRA removed that upfront allowance and set K-Electric's tariff on a 100 per cent recovery target.

NEPRA gave its reason in the decision. The Power Division and CPPA-G estimated the allowance would cost about Rs 36 billion for FY 2023-24 and could pass Rs 200 billion over the tariff period. Because Karachi pays the uniform national tariff, the government covers that gap through subsidy. NEPRA said it did not want that burden passed to the federal budget.

In place of the allowance, NEPRA allowed K-Electric to claim actual write-offs of bad debt, within a yearly cap and after third-party checks.

1. The write-off cap is 3.5 per cent for FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25.
2. It falls to 3 per cent in FY 2025-26 and 2.5 per cent in FY 2026-27.
3. It reaches 2 per cent, then 1.5 per cent, and finally 1 per cent in FY 2029-30.

The conditions are strict. The consumer must be permanently disconnected, the debt must be over three years old, the connection must be backed by a CNIC, and debts of government bodies do not count. We read these figures in the scanned copy of S.R.O. 1643(I)/2026. With the order suspended, this part is frozen too.

What this means for your Karachi electricity bill

Your per-unit rate does not change because of this order. The supply review notification, S.R.O. 1643(I)/2026, says so in plain words: K-Electric consumers "shall not be charged the tariff outlined therein". They pay the tariff that applies to consumers of the former WAPDA companies, under the government's policy guidelines of 22 August 2023.

That is why Karachi customers paid the same Rs 1.1086 a unit fuel charge on October bills as Lahore or Multan. The fight in court is about how much revenue K-Electric is allowed, and so how large the government's subsidy gap becomes. It is not about the rate printed on your bill.

Your bill, your complaint rights and your load shedding schedule stay the same. You can still check and download your K-Electric bill as usual. If a bill looks wrong, the route is the same as before: call 118 first, then go to NEPRA, as set out in our page on K-Electric complaints through 118 and NEPRA.

What happens next in the case

The court will hear the case after the respondents reply. Until then, the review decisions and their notifications stay suspended. K-Electric says it will keep pursuing the matter "through appropriate legal and regulatory forums".

Two other NEPRA steps around K-Electric are worth watching. On 31 August 2026, NEPRA issued an order against K-Electric under section 27C of the NEPRA Act over unannounced and excessive load shedding in Karachi. And NEPRA's 9 October grid charge notification tells K-Electric to comply with court orders while applying it. Neither is part of this court case as far as the published documents show.

Common questions

Did the Sindh High Court cancel NEPRA's decision on K-Electric?

No. It suspended the challenged notifications and orders in the interim on 7 October 2026 and fixed the case for hearing. A final ruling has not been given.

Will my K-Electric bill go up or down because of this order?

No. K-Electric customers pay the uniform national tariff, and NEPRA's supply review notification says the review tariff is not charged to them.

What is a recovery loss?

It is the cost of electricity billed but never paid for. NEPRA's review removed K-Electric's upfront allowance for it and set a 100 per cent recovery target.

Which NEPRA notifications are suspended?

K-Electric says the court suspended the notifications and orders on the review of its multi-year tariff. NEPRA published four such notifications, S.R.O. 1643 to 1646 of 2026, on 23 September 2026.

When is the next hearing?

K-Electric's statement does not give a date. The court has issued notices to the respondents and will fix the hearing.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked 10 October 2026. We read K-Electric's statement of 8 October 2026 on ke.com.pk and NEPRA's notifications S.R.O. 1643(I) to 1646(I) of 2026, dated 23 September 2026, on nepra.org.pk, including the supply review decision. The court order itself was not available to us, so the description of the order comes from K-Electric's statement. Write-off caps and the recovery target come from S.R.O. 1643(I)/2026, a scanned copy.