- Saudi, Kuwaiti traders file $2bn arbitration in opposition to Pakistan.
- Ok-Electrical traders launch $2bn case beneath UNCITRAL guidelines.
- Pakistan will get 60 days to nominate arbitrator in Ok-Electrical dispute.
In a surprising improvement, Saudi and Kuwaiti traders in Ok-Electrical have launched a $2 billion worldwide arbitration case in opposition to Pakistan, escalating a years-long dispute over regulatory intervention, unpaid authorities dues and the extended blocking of a $1.77 billion sale of the nation’s largest personal energy utility.
The arbitration was initiated on January 16, 2026, when London-based legislation corporations Steptoe Worldwide (UK) LLP and Omnia Technique LLP, performing for the traders, submitted a Discover of Arbitration beneath the OIC Funding Settlement and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Guidelines, formally naming the Islamic Republic of Pakistan because the respondent.
The claimants — 32 Saudi people and entities linked to the Al-Jomaih household and 5 Kuwaiti corporations — collectively maintain a 30.7% oblique stake in Ok-Electrical and have been cornerstone shareholders since its 2005 privatisation, Pakistan’s first main power-sector divestment.
The claimants have appointed Professor Stephan Schill as their arbitrator and proposed the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration to manage the case. Pakistan has 60 days to appoint its arbitrator.
Based on the 39-page Discover of Arbitration (NoA), the traders say they’ve poured greater than USD4.7 billion into Karachi’s energy infrastructure over the previous 20 years, reviving a loss-making state utility, reducing technical and industrial losses, and increasing technology and distribution capability.
They declare they’ve by no means taken dividends, reinvesting all earnings, and estimate their funding has delivered over USD 3 billion in financial savings to the Pakistani exchequer.
The dispute traces again to October 2016, when the traders agreed to promote 66.4% of Ok-Electrical to Shanghai Electrical Energy Firm in a USD1.77 billion deal. Whereas the transaction initially secured assist from Pakistani ministries and regulators, it was later stalled for greater than eight years, allegedly attributable to shifting regulatory situations, contradictory official directions and the failure to grant necessary nationwide safety and different approvals.
Regardless of repeated deadline extensions and full compliance by the traders, the authorities allegedly did not course of approvals in good religion, in the end forcing Shanghai Electrical to stroll away. The traders argue the extended deadlock disadvantaged them of their contractual exit and amounted to oblique expropriation beneath worldwide legislation.
The arbitration additionally highlights long-standing unpaid authorities receivables, together with tariff differential subsidies and different undisputed quantities owed to Ok-Electrical, some relationship again almost 20 years. The traders say the mounting arrears crippled the utility’s money flows, at the same time as authorities entities continued to levy late-payment penalties.
Efforts to resolve the standoff via dialogue additionally collapsed. After Pakistan shaped a high-level job pressure in 2022, the federal government entered a cabinet-approved mediation settlement in February 2024.
Though the mediator reportedly accomplished findings in Might 2025, the method ended abruptly earlier than a remaining willpower could possibly be issued. The traders allege state interference blocked findings unfavourable to the federal government.
The submitting additional accuses Islamabad of politicising Ok-Electrical’s multi-year tariff framework and undermining the independence of energy regulator NEPRA. After NEPRA issued remaining tariff determinations in Might 2025, the federal government allegedly declined to inform them, reopened settled issues via flawed assessment proceedings and imposed revised tariffs the traders describe as confiscatory.
The traders estimate the tariff modifications alone would price Ok-Electrical round Rs85 billion yearly, stripping the enterprise of financial viability and eroding investor worth, in violation of Pakistan’s obligation to keep up a secure and predictable regulatory regime.
The declare additionally alleges that Pakistani authorities failed to guard the funding from makes an attempt by a home investor to grab management of Ok-Electrical via offshore constructions, undisclosed possession modifications and regulatory violations, regardless of repeated complaints to regulators and enforcement businesses.
In an additional allegation, the arbitration cites the diversion of about USD 66 million from the sale of shares in Cnergyico, a Pakistan Inventory Alternate-listed firm.
The traders declare the proceeds have been transferred offshore with out approvals, and that regulators did not act regardless of a number of alerts. The traders say Pakistan has breached a number of provisions of the OIC Funding Settlement, together with protections in opposition to expropriation, honest and equitable remedy, free switch of funds and entry to efficient treatments.
They’ve additionally invoked most-favoured-nation clauses to depend on protections in Pakistan’s bilateral funding treaties with Bahrain and Switzerland.
Initially printed in The News
