Mallika Dureja
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Khawaja Asif, who is in charge of Pakistan’s defence, says that these changes will save the country about 62 billion Pakistani rupees ($274.3 million or £228.9 million).
Pakistan gets most of its power from fossil fuels that it imports.
Last year, the prices of energy around the world went up, which made the country’s finances even worse.
The country needs foreign currency, especially US dollars, to pay for these energy imports.
Last month, the government of Pakistan had $11.7 billion in foreign currency on hand. This was after its foreign currency reserves dropped by about 50% in the past year.
That’s only enough to pay for all of the country’s imports for about one month, most of which are energy. Mr. Asif told reporters on Tuesday that shopping malls and markets would have to close by 20:30 local time, and that government agencies had been told to cut their electricity use by 30%.
At the same time, electric fans that don’t work well will no longer be made after the first of July.
The party in power, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), said on Twitter that the federal cabinet had approved the Energy Conservation Plan right away.
The federal cabinet has immediately approved the Energy Conservation Plan's enforcement. pic.twitter.com/RVxhjaiYyE
— PMLN (@pmln_org) January 3, 2023
The 220 million-person country has been struggling for years to get its economy back on track.
Pakistan got a bailout of $6 billion from the International Monetary Fund in 2019, and another $1.1 billion in August of last year.
The government is also talking with the IMF about holding back $1.1 billion in bailout money.
Pakistan’s finances were also hurt by the terrible floods that hit the country last year.
In October, the World Bank said that the flooding had cost the country $40 billion in damage.
