ISLAMABAD: The price of solar panels has plummeted by over sixty percent in Pakistan in recent weeks due to bulk imports from China because of lower rates, importers said this week, with more consumers switching to the renewable source of power to reduce electricity bills.
The cost of producing solar panels in China, which accounts for about 80 percent of global consumption, plummeted by 42 percent in the last year, giving manufacturers there an enormous advantage over rivals in places like the United States and Europe. Multiple European solar manufacturers have announced plans to close factories in recent months, under price pressure from Chinese imports. China accounts for 80 percent of solar module production capacity after years of subsidies.
Pakistan has ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation, with over nine hours of sunlight in most parts of the country. Utilizing just 0.071 percent of the country’s area for solar photovoltaic (solar PV) power generation would meet Pakistan’s electricity demand, according to the World Bank.
But currently, only 5.4 percent of Pakistan’s installed power generation capacity of 39,772 megawatts comes from renewables like wind, solar and biomass, while fossil fuels still make up 63 percent of the fuel mix, followed by hydropower at 25 percent, according to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA).
But this may change with an acute drop in the price of panels, importers said.
“A solar plate of 580 watts that I bought [last year] for 75,000 rupees [$270] has dropped to 25,000 rupees [$90] now,” Muhammad Yahya, a solar importer in Islamabad, told Arab News on Thursday. “That means it’s one-third of [earlier price].”
“The rates of the inverters are the same and keep fluctuating, but the main thing is solar panels and the rates of the solar panels are now 33 percent lower.”
Prices of solar panels dropped in China following import curtailment from major buyers including India, US and Europe while the Pakistani government had abolished a 17 percent sales tax to encourage solar imports, Yahya said, explaining the reduction in panel prices:
“People who would import through illegal channels, they [the government] blocked them, this helped stop the illegal import, and led to a bulk import, and secondly the rates [of solar panels] have dropped in China.”
Another solar panel importer in Islamabad, Abdul Moiz, agreed that the rate drop in China and curtailment of imports to India and other major buyers had led to bulk imports to Pakistan.
“America and India have stopped their imports [from China], that’s why the majority of the imports are now directed toward Pakistan,” Moiz told Arab News.
“CLIMATE CHANGE”
Despite the benefits, including to the environment of zero carbon emissions from solar panels, Pakistan is far behind in meeting its goal of shifting to 60 percent renewable energy by 2030 with 50 percent reduction in projected emissions.
Experts say procedural and bureaucratic delays in construction approvals and unattractive tariffs for selling power to the national grid coupled with a lack of political will and little government investment had blocked the progress of the solar industry in the past. For households, a big impediment, before the Chinese rate cuts, was the steep initial investment.
But that has changed, with electricity consumers describing the drop in solar panel prices as a ‘big relief’ in reducing their electricity bills.
“After its [solar panel] installation, our [electricity] cost has reduced to thirty percent,” Imran Ali Gul, a manager at a local hotel who has installed a 16kw system, told Arab News. “That’s why we preferred to get the solar system installed.”
Aamir Hussain, chairman Pakistan Alternative Energy Association, told Arab News Pakistanis purchased and installed solar panels of around 1800 megawatts last year, which was expected to jump to 3,000 megawatts this year due to the lower prices of the panels and increased customer demand.
“Pakistan will be spending over $3.5 billion [this year] on solar panels imports only as this doesn’t include import of batteries, inverters and other auxiliary items,” Hussain said. “Pakistan needs to follow consistent policies regarding renewable energy to meet its national and international obligations for the greenhouse gas emissions.”
Experts also said Pakistan, one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts, needed to swiftly move to end its reliance on fossil fuels.
“There is no denying of the fact that climate change has wreaked havoc globally, so the studies suggest that in order to meet the global targets of reducing our temperature etc, in addition to transition of existing fossil fuel power plants, we should cap these fossils as well,” Manzoor Ahmed, a researcher at the Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development in Islamabad, told Arab News.
“So, given this roadmap, given our commitments in terms of net zero emissions or COP conferences where we agreed to meet global targets, we have no choice but to shift to renewables and we must do it.”
Demand for solar power rises in Pakistan as import glut crashes panel prices
https://arab.news/wju6g
Demand for solar power rises in Pakistan as import glut crashes panel prices
- Businessmen say solar panel prices have dropped by over sixty percent due to bulk import, rate cuts by China
- Islamabad currently only generates around five percent of its energy from renewable solutions like solar power
Separated twice: An Afghan man’s life in Pakistan and the fear of losing home again
- Lost as a child in Peshawar, Mohammad Rahim Khan built a life in Pakistan but remains undocumented
- Deportation drive of ‘illegal’ foreigners exposes legal gaps around adoption, marriage, refugee status
ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Rahim Khan was five years old when he last saw his mother.
It was at the Hajji Camp bus stop in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, more than four decades ago. His mother, an Afghan refugee fleeing war, had brought him across the Tari Mangal border in Kurram district and into Pakistan. While waiting at the crowded terminal, Khan wandered to a nearby toy shop. When he returned, she was gone.
He searched for her for two days. She never came back.
A local shopkeeper, Ali Muhammad, took pity on the child and brought him home, promising to help find his family. The temporary shelter became permanent. Khan grew up in Pakistan, adopted informally into the household, and never returned to Afghanistan.
Now 45, he lives on the outskirts of Islamabad in a modest two-room house, working as a daily wage laborer. But a nationwide deportation drive launched by Pakistan in 2023 has placed his entire life under threat.
Since November 2023, authorities have deported nearly 2 million Afghan nationals, targeting those without legal documentation. Khan, who has remained undocumented throughout his adult life, fears he may soon be among them.
“I spoke to my lawyer that I am very worried,” Khan told Arab News. “I love Pakistan.”
A FAMILY WITHOUT PAPERS
Ali Muhammad later married Khan to his daughter, Gul Mina. Together, they have six children, four daughters and two sons. Yet despite decades in Pakistan, Khan’s Afghan nationality continues to shadow the family.
Khan never held an Afghan refugee card, Afghan Citizen Card (ACC), Proof of Registration (POR), or any other formal documentation. His family assumed for decades that his informal adoption, marriage to a Pakistani citizen, and long residence would provide sufficient legal standing. They only sought legal advice when the deportation drive began threatening separation.
Without a Pakistani national identity card, his children cannot obtain Form-B, the birth registration document required for school enrolment.
“They [children] are told to get a Form-B,” Gul Mina told Arab News. “Otherwise, they will not go to school.”
Three of their daughters were forced to leave school after eighth grade.
Healthcare has also been affected. When Khan’s 13-year-old son, Ehsanullah, fractured his arm, a public hospital refused to issue a registration card without identity documents.
“Then I went to a [private clinic] in Chak Shahzad and got my treatment there,” Khan said.
The family has petitioned the Islamabad High Court to block his deportation. Lawyers say the case highlights how thousands of long-term residents fall through legal cracks created by Pakistan’s citizenship, refugee and documentation framework.
LEGAL GREY ZONE
Pakistan does not legally recognize Western-style adoption. Instead, it uses a guardianship system under the 1890 Guardians and Wards Act, aligning with Islamic principles that preserve lineage, so adopted children don’t inherit or change their family name but receive care, education and welfare through court-appointed guardianship.
“Because we don’t have a legal pathway for adoption per se, the adopted child does not get citizenship of the adopting parents automatically,” said Advocate Umer Ijaz Gillani, a legal expert on citizenship.
Years earlier, Khan’s father-in-law had offered to register him as his biological son to obtain identity documents, but Khan refused, calling the move fraudulent. Because Khan later married his father-in-law’s daughter, both he and his wife cannot legally list the same person as their father on official records, leaving them without a lawful workaround.
Marriage offers no certainty either. Pakistan’s Citizenship Act of 1951 grants citizenship to foreign women married to Pakistani men, but is silent on foreign husbands married to Pakistani women.
While higher courts have, at times, ruled in favor of such men, implementation has been inconsistent. In October 2025, the Supreme Court struck down a high court order that had directed authorities to grant citizenship to an Afghan man married to a Pakistani woman.
Even the Pakistan Origin Card (POC), a long-term residency document, remains difficult to secure.
“We have experienced that in the case of especially Afghan men who marry Pakistani women, the government authorities are often reluctant to recognize this right,” Gillani said.
According to submissions made by government officials in court, authorities have received at least 117 applications for nationality from Afghan men married to Pakistani women following directives issued by the Peshawar High Court, reflecting a broader pattern rather than isolated cases.
‘NO RELAXATION’
Officials say the deportation policy allows no exceptions.
“No relaxation has been granted by the government, including for those who’ve married to Pakistani citizens,” said Asmatullah Shah, the chief commissionerate for Afghan refugees.
“If they want to live here, they should go back and apply for a visa and then they can come here with valid documentation.”
Legal experts note that deportation would send Khan to Afghanistan despite having no known relatives there, and that returning legally would require obtaining an Afghan passport and a Pakistani visa, costs far beyond the means of a daily wage laborer.
For Khan’s mother-in-law, Husn Pari, who raised him for decades as her own son, the prospect is devastating.
“When I am not able to meet [Khan] for one day, my day does not pass,” she said. “His own mother, how much pain must she be in?”
For Khan, the fear of deportation echoes the trauma of his childhood.
“Before I was separated from my first mother,” he said. “The second time I will be separated from my second mother. This is very difficult for me.”
