Why Does a Fugitive's Power Plant Still Get Paid by the Pakistani State?
The Suleman Shehbaz, Chiniot Power Limited story explained, plus what it tells us about how the IPP system actually treats its insiders
By Asad Baig · Lahore · April 2026 · Approx. 7-min read
The question worth asking out loud
Suleman Shehbaz is the son of Pakistan's current Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
He has lived in London since 2018. He is officially a proclaimed offender, a fugitive from Pakistani justice, in a Federal Investigation Agency money-laundering case filed in November 2020 alleging the laundering of approximately Rs. 16 billion through 28 benami bank accounts.
He owns a 62.4 MW bagasse-based power plant called Chiniot Power Limited. The plant continues to receive capacity payments from the Pakistani government. The Pakistani government making those payments is headed by his father.
This article is about that arrangement. The basic facts. The legal status. The question that nobody in government has been willing to answer publicly.
The basic facts
In November 2020, the Federal Investigation Agency filed a formal charge sheet against Suleman Shehbaz, his father (then Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif), his brother Hamza Shehbaz, and others. The allegations included the laundering of approximately Rs. 16 billion through 28 benami bank accounts between 2008 and 2018.
Shehbaz and Hamza were eventually acquitted by the courts in February 2025. Their acquittal was reported by The Express Tribune on 7 February 2025.
Suleman Shehbaz never returned to Pakistan to face trial. He has lived in London since 2018, before the FIA case was filed. He is officially a proclaimed offender under Pakistani law, the legal status that follows when a person fails to appear before a court within the timeframe required by the legal proceedings against them.
In September 2022, the Lahore Special Court ordered the National Bank of Pakistan to attach 13 bank accounts of companies associated with Suleman Shehbaz, including Al-Arabia Sugar Mills, Ramzan Sugar Mills, and Chiniot Power Limited. Reported by Dawn on 11 September 2022.
These are facts in the public record. None of this is alleged. All of it is documented in court filings, FIA records, and mainstream Pakistani journalism.
What Chiniot Power Limited actually is
Chiniot Power Limited is a 62.4 MW bagasse-based independent power producer. Bagasse is the fibrous waste that remains after sugar cane is crushed for juice. It is essentially free, the byproduct of sugar mill operations.
The Chiniot plant generates electricity from the waste produced by Sharif family sugar mills, including Al-Arabia Sugar Mills and Ramzan Sugar Mills. The electricity is sold into the Pakistani national grid. The plant collects capacity payments under the renewable energy framework that NEPRA established in 2006.
I have written about the 2006 bagasse framework and how it became, in practice, a state-guaranteed income stream for politically connected sugar mill owners at The 2002 and 2006 Repeats.
The contradiction nobody resolves
Read the next four sentences slowly.
Suleman Shehbaz is officially a proclaimed offender under Pakistani law. His commercial entities had bank accounts attached by court order. He owns a power plant. That power plant continues to receive payments from the Pakistani government.
The Pakistani government making those payments is headed by his father, the Prime Minister.
This is not a hidden contradiction. It is not buried in technical reports. It is not obscured by jargon. It is plain English, in the public record, available to any Pakistani citizen who reads a newspaper.
ONE QUESTION WORTH ASKING
If a private citizen owed sixteen billion rupees in a documented FIA money-laundering case, would the Federal Board of Revenue allow that citizen's businesses to continue collecting payments from the government? The answer is no. The same standard does not appear to apply when the citizen in question is the son of the Prime Minister.
No formal action has been taken to address this conflict. The capacity payments continue. The plant operates. The proclaimed offender remains in London. The Prime Minister remains in office.
How does this happen in practice
The mechanical answer is straightforward. The plant is a separate legal entity. The payments are made to the corporate entity, not to individuals. The corporate entity is in good standing with NEPRA. NEPRA's licensing decisions are based on the entity's compliance with technical and financial obligations. The fact that the ultimate beneficial owner is a proclaimed offender does not, under current Pakistani regulatory practice, automatically trigger payment suspension.
This is the technical answer. It is also, on its face, absurd.
The structure of accountability in Pakistan, when it comes to powerful interests, has been documented across decades to be designed to fail. The structure of accountability when it comes to a junior official who steals fifty thousand rupees from the post office works perfectly. The Prime Minister's son, officially a fugitive from a Rs. 16 billion money-laundering case, continues to collect capacity payments from the Pakistani state, with no formal action taken to address the conflict.
This is not a bug. It is a feature. It is how the system protects its insiders.
Why I write about this
Some readers might ask whether it is appropriate to write about a sitting Prime Minister's son in this way. The answer involves three considerations.
First, every claim in this article is in the public record. The FIA charge sheet was a public document. The Lahore Special Court order was a public proceeding. The Sharif family's commercial holdings, including the sugar mills and Chiniot Power, are documented in NEPRA filings, SECP records, and Karachi Stock Exchange disclosures. Nothing here requires investigation. It is in the public domain.
Second, the conflict of interest is structural, not personal. This article is not about Suleman Shehbaz as an individual. It is about a system that allows the Prime Minister's son's business to continue collecting state payments while he is a fugitive from a state legal process. The structural problem would exist if the names were different. The structure is what deserves examination.
Third, the intent is to inform, not to defame. Suleman Shehbaz, his father, and his brother have multiple platforms (the courts, the media, official statements) through which to respond to anything in this article they consider inaccurate. The work of citizens is to hold institutions and individuals accountable on the basis of public records. The work of those institutions and individuals is, when needed, to defend themselves with facts. Both are legitimate. Neither should be silenced.
What this story tells us about the broader IPP system
The Chiniot Power story is small in scale. The 62.4 MW plant is not among Pakistan's largest IPPs. The capacity payments it collects are modest compared to the Rs. 60-80 billion that the Mansha plants collect or the Rs. 46 billion that HUBCO and KAPCO receive.
But the story tells us something important about how the IPP system treats its insiders.
The Mansha family's October 2024 plant terminations were structured to deliver accelerated payment of outstanding receivables, billions in dues, framed publicly as patriotic sacrifice. The Babar conflict-of-interest naming in the 2020 inquiry produced no consequences. The Chiniot Power payments continue despite the owner's proclaimed-offender status.
Across multiple cases, the pattern is consistent. The system's insiders are protected. The technical justifications for the protection vary case by case. The protection itself is invariant.
This is what I mean when I write that the IPP question is structural, not partisan. The same patterns operate across PML-N, PPP, and PTI governments. The protected insiders have shifted membership across the parties as political fortunes have changed. The protection itself, the institutional commitment to ensuring that insiders' commercial interests are preserved regardless of broader public interest, has been remarkably consistent across decades.
I have written about this at length in my pillar on the IPP system and in The 40 Families Who Own Pakistan's IPPs.
What you should take away
Three things to remember about the Chiniot Power story.
A man officially fugitive from Pakistani justice owns a power plant that continues to receive capacity payments from the Pakistani government. This is not allegation. It is documented in court records, FIA filings, and NEPRA databases.
The Pakistani government making those payments is headed by his father. The Prime Minister has not addressed the conflict publicly. No formal action has been taken to suspend payments or otherwise address the situation.
The structure that allows this is not unique to this case. It is the structure of how the IPP system has treated insiders across multiple administrations. The Chiniot Power story is unusual in being publicly visible. The underlying structural protection is widespread.
The least Pakistani citizens can do, given this set of facts, is ask the question publicly. Why does a fugitive's power plant still get paid by the Pakistani state? The question deserves an answer. The fact that no government has provided one is itself part of the story.
Now you know. Pass it on.
Thank you for reading.
, Asad Baig, Lahore, April 2026
Frequently asked questions
Who is Suleman Shehbaz? Suleman Shehbaz is the son of Pakistan's current Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif. He is officially a proclaimed offender in a Federal Investigation Agency money-laundering case filed in November 2020. He has lived in London since 2018. He owns Chiniot Power Limited.
What is the FIA case against the Sharif family? In November 2020, the FIA filed a formal charge sheet against Suleman Shehbaz, Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, and others, alleging the laundering of approximately Rs. 16 billion through 28 benami bank accounts between 2008 and 2018. Shehbaz and Hamza were acquitted by the courts in February 2025. Suleman never returned to face trial.
What is Chiniot Power Limited? A 62.4 MW bagasse-based independent power producer. It generates electricity from the waste produced by Sharif family sugar mills, including Al-Arabia Sugar Mills and Ramzan Sugar Mills. The electricity is sold into the Pakistani grid under capacity payment terms determined by NEPRA under the renewable energy framework.
Were Suleman Shehbaz's bank accounts attached? Yes. In September 2022, the Lahore Special Court ordered the National Bank of Pakistan to attach 13 bank accounts of companies associated with Suleman Shehbaz, including Al-Arabia Sugar Mills, Ramzan Sugar Mills, and Chiniot Power Limited.
Why is Chiniot Power still receiving payments? The plant is a separate legal entity in good standing with NEPRA. NEPRA's licensing decisions are based on the entity's compliance with technical and financial obligations, not on the legal status of its ultimate beneficial owner. No formal action has been taken to suspend the payments or otherwise address the conflict between the owner's proclaimed-offender status and the continued state payments.
Is bagasse-fired electricity considered renewable in Pakistan? Yes, formally. Bagasse is a renewable input (sugar cane waste) and bagasse plants are licensed under the 2006 renewable energy framework. In practice, the framework has been criticised for delivering a state-guaranteed income stream to politically connected sugar mill owners rather than primarily advancing renewable energy generation.
Sources and notes
- Power Sector Inquiry Report 2020, Government of Pakistan, headed by Muhammad Ali, former SECP Chairman (ARY News mirror)
- Federal Investigation Agency challan against Sharif family members (November 2020)
- Dawn, Money laundering case: Court orders NBP to attach 13 more accounts of Suleman's firms (11 September 2022)
- The Express Tribune, Shehbaz, Hamza acquitted in corruption reference (7 February 2025)
- OCCRP, Pakistani PM and Son Acquitted From Money Laundering Case
- NEPRA tariff filings and licensing records for Chiniot Power Limited (nepra.org.pk)
- Sharif Group, Chiniot Power Limited corporate disclosure (sgroup.pk/chiniot-power-ltd)
Related reading from Asad Baig
The pillar this explainer supports
Sibling explainers in this cluster
- The Mansha Empire: From the MCB Bank Sale to Lalpir Power
- The Dawood Story: HUBCO, Engro, and the Thar Coal Plants
- Nadeem Babar: The Architect Inside, and the Oursun Solar Tariff
Asad Baig