KARACHI: Pakistan is seeking the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval to supply surplus power to the industrial and agriculture sectors at an unsubsidized tariff of seven to 7.5 cents per unit, the country’s power minister, Awais Leghari, said, according to an official statement on Wednesday.

The once energy-deficient South Asian nation now boasts 7,000 megawatts of surplus electricity that it began generating with Beijing’s help under the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“We have been consulting with the IMF for the past six months to approve the scheme,” Leghari told a consultative meeting held in the federal capital Islamabad regarding Pakistan’s transition from solar net metering to a net billing system.

The government plans to generate as much as 60 percent of its power from renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydropower and nuclear energy over the next five years to cut the cash-strapped country’s oil import bill.

“There is no direct financial pressure on us [from the IMF],” the minister said, adding the move would balance the nation’s supply and demand of electricity, strengthen the power system and benefit consumers.

The Washington-based lender approved a $7 billion loan for Pakistan last year to help support export-led growth and is reviewing the government’s budgetary plans for FY26, starting in July.

According to the National Accounts Committee, Pakistan’s economy is expected to expand by 2.7 percent during the outgoing FY25 due to lackluster agricultural and industrial performance.

The power minister said the government, since June, has provided cross-subsidies of Rs 174 billion ($617 million) to industries, a measure that brought down industrial tariffs by 31 percent and significantly increased consumption.

Under its ongoing energy reforms, the minister said, the government is considering various proposals, including changing the current solar net metering system into a more effective, transparent and sustainable model.

“The government is not abolishing net metering,” he continued, adding that its scope had expanded so significantly that it was now seriously impacting the national grid, thus requiring timely intervention.

In the fast-solarizing Pakistan, net metering allows consumers to utilize the electricity generated by their in-house solar systems and send the surplus to the national grid at an agreed rate.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed the killing of two Pakistanis in Iran’s volatile Sistan-Baluchistan province, saying that efforts were underway to repatriate the bodies.

In a brief statement, the foreign office spokesperson said Iranian authorities have confirmed the killing of Pakistani nationals named Mujahid and Mohammed Faheem in Sistan-Baluchistan. However, the statement did not mention how the two were killed.

The spokesperson said Pakistan’s embassy in Tehran is in “active communication” with Iranian authorities, who were extending the necessary support and assistance.

“Efforts are being made to repatriate the dead bodies as soon as necessary administrative and legal requirements are fulfilled,” he said.

Thousands of Pakistanis, mostly from economically disadvantaged areas, frequently cross into Iran to take up informal work in sectors such as vehicle repair, construction and agriculture.

One of Iran’s poorest regions, Sistan-Baluchistan on the border with Pakistan has long been plagued by unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baloch minority and religiously motivated militants.

Eight Pakistanis were killed in its Mehrestan County in April. The attack was claimed by the Balochistan National Army (BNA), one of several separatist outfits operating in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.

Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite a number of commercial pacts, with Islamabad being historically closer to Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Both countries are often at odds over instability on their shared porous border, routinely trading blame for not rooting out militancy.