PM Shehbaz seeks end to electricity theft, transmission line losses.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed to constitute a special cabinet committee to finalise a strategy to end line losses, theft of electricity and solarisation of tube wells.

Chairing the cabinet meeting in Islamabad on Thursday, the premier ordered authorities concerned to take necessary steps to line the power system with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA).

The federal cabinet was also given a proposal about the formation of a special police force to be deployed in areas with 60% and more line losses.

PM Shehbaz directed the Power Division to hold a departmental action after the findings of an inquiry report held responsible for the 'human and technical error' for the countrywide power breakdown of January 23.

A massive power breakdown hit Pakistan on January 23, hampering businesses and the daily lives of the country's more than 220 million people. The prime minister had also ordered an inquiry into the outage, which began at around 7:30am on that day.

The outage - which Energy Minister Khurram Dastagir had said was due to a voltage surge - was the second major grid failure in...