The 2025 NEPRA Salary Scandal Explained
How Pakistan's electricity regulator tripled its own pay in February 2025, above Supreme Court judges, while household bills hit historic highs
By Asad Baig · Lahore · April 2026 · Approx. 4-min read
What happened
In February 2025, the chairperson and members of NEPRA, Pakistan's electricity regulator, quietly approved increases to their own remuneration. The increases were not modest. Salaries were tripled. Cumulative monthly packages rose to approximately Rs. 2.95 to 3.25 million per month.
That is higher than the salaries of judges of Pakistan's superior courts.
The increases were approved by NEPRA officials for themselves, in apparent violation of established procedure that required mandatory federal cabinet approval. The cabinet was not consulted. The increases were implemented anyway.
The story was reported by Dawn newspaper on 17 February 2025. NEPRA did not issue a meaningful response. No corrective action was announced. The salaries continued.
Why this matters beyond the salaries themselves
Pakistani public-sector salary scandals are common. What makes the NEPRA case particularly significant is the timing and the institutional context.
The timing: Early 2025. Pakistani consumers were facing record electricity bills. Approximately 700,000 textile workers had lost their jobs because of the tariffs NEPRA had approved. Industries were closing. Households were paying twenty-five percent of household income on electricity.
The institutional context: NEPRA is the regulator that was supposed to protect consumers from the IPP system. The 2020 Power Sector Inquiry Report had documented that NEPRA had failed at every primary function for which it was created. Five years later, instead of addressing those failures, the same officials decided to triple their own pay.
This is not a technical scandal. It is a moral one. The institution charged with protecting consumers from excess IPP profits was found to be quietly extracting excess profits for its own officials, in violation of its own legal framework, while consumers' bills reached historic highs.
I have written about NEPRA's broader regulatory failures at NEPRA: The Regulator That Did Not Regulate.
The legal violation
The relevant Pakistani regulations require that any salary increases for senior NEPRA officials be approved by the federal cabinet. This is a procedural safeguard meant to prevent exactly the kind of self-dealing that occurred.
NEPRA officials skipped this step. They approved their own increases through internal NEPRA processes that did not include cabinet review.
The legal status of the increases is therefore questionable. They were implemented but were arguably implemented in violation of the procedural requirements that govern NEPRA salary determinations. No Pakistani court has, as of April 2026, ruled on the validity of the increases. No formal investigation has been initiated.
The cabinet, when the story broke, did not formally challenge the increases. The political-bureaucratic establishment chose accommodation over confrontation, in keeping with the broader pattern of how Pakistani institutions handle their internal accountability questions.
Comparison
Salaries of approximately Rs. 2.95 to 3.25 million per month put NEPRA officials above:
- Supreme Court judges
- Federal cabinet ministers
- Provincial chief secretaries
- Most BPS-22 grade civil servants in equivalent advisory roles
Below them in compensation are essentially every other senior public servant in Pakistan. This is unusual for a regulatory body. Comparable regulators in other Pakistani sectors (SECP, SBP, Competition Commission) have salary structures aligned with senior civil service grades, not above them.
The justification offered by NEPRA defenders has been that NEPRA officials need private-sector-comparable compensation to attract qualified candidates. The counter-argument is that NEPRA has, by its own commissioned 2020 Inquiry Report, failed at its primary regulatory functions despite the existing compensation structure. There is no evidence that higher pay would produce better regulation.
THE CONTRADICTION IN ONE SENTENCE
NEPRA's primary function is to protect consumers from excess returns to power producers. NEPRA's officials extracted excess returns for themselves in violation of legal procedure. The contradiction is structural, not coincidental.
What the broader pattern tells us
The 2025 NEPRA salary scandal is one episode in a pattern. Other elements of the same pattern:
- The 2020 Power Sector Inquiry Report's findings on NEPRA's regulatory failures, which were never addressed
- The continued operation of NEPRA without internal reform
- The ongoing approval of tariff structures that produce the bill levels Pakistani consumers cannot afford
- The 2026 Prosumer Regulations that punished six million solar households to maintain IPP capacity payment obligations
Each of these episodes, individually, is technical. Together, they describe an institution that has prioritised its own continuation and the protection of the IPP system over the consumer interests it was created to protect.
Reform of NEPRA, including independent appointment processes, mandatory cooling-off periods before joining regulated entities, and salary structures aligned with public-service principles rather than private-sector parity, is one of the ten steps in the broader IPP reform agenda I describe at my pillar on the IPP system.
What you should take away
Three things.
NEPRA officials tripled their own pay in February 2025 without cabinet approval. Cumulative monthly packages reached Rs. 2.95-3.25 million, above Supreme Court judge salaries.
The increase was approved while the consequences of NEPRA's regulatory decisions were visible. Record electricity bills. Closing textile mills. 700,000 lost jobs.
No formal action has been taken against the increases. They were implemented despite questionable legality. The salaries continue.
The NEPRA salary scandal is, in some ways, the easiest test of whether Pakistani institutions can hold their own officials accountable. As of April 2026, the test has been failed.
Now you know the story. Pass it on.
Thank you for reading.
, Asad Baig, Lahore, April 2026
Frequently asked questions
What is the 2025 NEPRA salary scandal? In February 2025, NEPRA's chairperson and members approved increases to their own remuneration without obtaining the mandatory federal cabinet approval. The cumulative salary package was raised to approximately Rs. 2.95-3.25 million per month, higher than the salaries of judges of Pakistan's superior courts.
Was the salary increase legal? Of questionable legality. The relevant regulations require federal cabinet approval for senior NEPRA salary changes. NEPRA implemented the increases through internal processes without cabinet review. No Pakistani court has ruled on the validity. No formal investigation has been initiated.
Has any NEPRA official faced consequences? No. As of April 2026, no NEPRA official has been removed or sanctioned in connection with the salary increases. The salaries continue to be paid.
Sources and notes
- Dawn, Top NEPRA officials hike salaries without cabinet nod (17 February 2025)
- Power Sector Inquiry Report 2020 (ARY News mirror)
- NEPRA Act and supporting regulations (nepra.org.pk)
- Transparency International Pakistan, NEPRA (transparency.org.pk/napra)
Asad Baig